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When it comes to his staggering list of legal troubles, Donald Trump hasn’t had much to celebrate lately, but the former president turned to his social media platform late yesterday afternoon to tout some welcome developments.
“After going through a criminal investigation for two years by the district attorneys office in Westchester County, New York, it was just announced that the case has been dropped, and no charges will be filed,” the Republican wrote in an all-caps harangue.
Was this the latest instance of Trump making up good news? In a welcome change of pace, no. As The Associated Press reported, in this instance, his announcement happened to be true.
Make that one less legal headache for Donald Trump. A suburban New York prosecutor said Thursday that she has closed a multiyear investigation that focused in part on whether the twice-indicted former president or his company misled authorities to reduce taxes on properties they own.
At this point, I suspect plenty of readers are asking, “Which one was this?” It’s understandable: Keeping track of the former president’s legal troubles isn’t easy. In fact, there have been plenty of roundups published recently, listing the criminal investigations into Trump, and this has generally been the forgotten case.
Nevertheless, it existed. The New York Times reported in October 2021 that the district attorney’s office in Westchester County, New York, had subpoenaed Trump’s local golf club’s financial records because there were suspicions that the Trump Organization had “misled local officials about the property’s value to reduce its taxes.”
The concerns were hardly outlandish: The Republican had faced related accusations that he’d made deceptive claims about the value of other properties.
But officials in the district attorney’s office were apparently satisfied that there wasn’t enough evidence of wrongdoing to proceed, and the case is now closed. Congratulations to the former president for avoiding an indictment — in this case.
The trouble, of course, is that this was the least scary of Trump’s legal dilemmas. Revisiting our earlier coverage, let’s recap.
- In Florida, special counsel Jack Smith’s office has indicted the former president as a result of his classified documents scandal.
- In New York, Trump has been indicted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, as part of its investigation into the former president’s hush money scandal.
- The special counsel’s office is also investigating Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 attack and the efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.
- In Georgia, Trump is under investigation by the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office, which is scrutinizing his alleged efforts to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.
- Federal officials, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, have also launched a criminal investigation surrounding his special purpose acquisition company, or SPAC.
This does not include a variety of civil cases pending against the former president, including the sweeping case brought by the New York Attorney General’s Office, several lawsuits filed by police officers injured during the Jan. 6 attack, and the defamation cases filed by writer E. Jean Carroll.
With a list like this in mind, the news out of Westchester County is nice, but it’s hardly evidence of a criminal suspect whose legal future is bright.
This post revises our related earlier coverage.