Editor’s Note: Jennifer Rodgers is a former federal prosecutor, adjunct professor of clinical law at New York University School of Law, lecturer-in-law at Columbia Law School and a CNN legal analyst. The opinions expressed here are her own. Read more opinion at CNN.
CNN
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When it comes to the unfortunate fight between former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the outcome is now clear. Pomerantz is the loser. And former President Donald Trump is the likely winner.
In February 2021, Mark Pomerantz, a very experienced former federal prosecutor, joined former Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office and led the criminal investigations into former President Donald Trump’s financial dealings.
Before Vance retired at the end of 2021, the Manhattan DA’s office indicted two Trump Organization companies, along with its Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, on multiple charges of criminal tax fraud and falsifying business records. In December 2022, a jury found Trump Corp. and Trump Payroll Corp. guilty on all counts. Weisselberg, who struck a plea deal with the prosecutors, was sentenced in January to five months in jail.
By 2022, Pomerantz thought his team had sufficient evidence to file felony charges against Trump in a separate case. But Bragg, the new DA who succeeded Vance, was concerned there wasn’t enough evidence to make the case that Trump intended to break the law.
Pomerantz ended up resigning in a public, noisy fashion, writing, “I believe that your decision not to prosecute Donald Trump now, and on the existing record, is misguided and completely contrary to the public interest.” And now, Pomerantz has written a book about the case.
The gist of Pomerantz’s claim is that he had assembled a strong criminal case against Trump, but Bragg lacked enthusiasm, and possibly the courage, to bring it. Bragg, for his part, has said that the case was not ready in early 2022 but that the investigation is still ongoing.
The Manhattan DA’s office recently impaneled a grand jury and began presenting evidence about Trump’s alleged role in a hush money payment to adult film star Stormy Daniels. (Trump has denied the affair with Daniels, and any wrongdoing.) Bragg’s office also alleges…
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