The news that Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump have been using a private email account that was also routed through a Trump Organization server is a fairly clear example of hypocrisy after the ongoing Trump rally chants regarding Hillary Clinton’s emails. However, as shady as their behavior appears, it’s not necessarily criminal. That situation, however, differs from the story of how Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. wriggled out of an indictment a few years ago.
In 2012, Ivanka and Don Jr. were the subject of a fraud and larceny inquiry after allegedly misleading prospective buyers about the value of units in Trump SoHo, a combination hotel and condo that had seen dismal sales. After a two year investigation, the case refused to go away, especially after investigators combed through the siblings’ emails:
In one e-mail, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coördinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the e-mails, they worried that a reporter might be on to them. In yet another, Donald, Jr., spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the e-mail chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the e-mail. There was “no doubt” that the Trump children “approved, knew of, agreed to, and intentionally inflated the numbers to make more sales,” one person who saw the e-mails told us. “They knew it was wrong.”
Frustrated by the continuing investigation, Trump Sr. brought long-time personal counsel Marc Kasowitz onto the case. Kasowitz donated to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.’s re-election campaign and, suddenly, the Manhattan DA told the lower-level prosecutors working on the case to drop it.
“I did not at the time believe beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed,” Vance explained to the New Yorker. Kasowitz also denied that anything was fishy about this fishy-looking situation:
“I donated to Cy Vance’s campaign because I was and remain extremely impressed by him as a person of impeccable integrity, as a brilliant lawyer and as a public servant with creative ideas and tremendous ability,” Kasowitz wrote in an e-mailed statement. “I have never made a contribution to anyone’s campaign, including Cy Vance’s, as a ‘quid-pro-quo’ for anything.”
District Attorney Vance has since said that he will return the donations.
(Via New Yorker)