Walls Closing In On Trump?

In Georgia, new Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has made clear she will aggressively investigate criminality arising from Trump’s recorded phone call trying to pressure the Georgia Secretary of State into somehow “finding” enough votes to overturn the election.

It seems, the walls are closing in on Donald Trump. Not the big, beautiful walls on the southern border, but potential felony charges in New York, Atlanta and Washington, DC.

Trump’s own impeachment lawyer posed the odd defense that the time to “go and arrest him” would be “after he’s out of office” during the Senate trial in which he was ultimately acquitted. Mitch McConnell, in his head-snapping mea culpa, also invoked criminal remedies at the time: “We have a criminal justice system in this country,” he said, adding, “and former presidents are not immune from being accountable.”

So where does that leave us?

Cyrus Vance, the District Attorney of New York, has had an open investigation for years that appears to be focusing on phony, shifting property valuations given to banks, insurers and tax authorities. Trump has fought to prevent his financial records and tax returns from being turned over, presumably for good reason, but his repeated appeals have now come to an end as the Supreme Court has refused any final relief.

Given that Donald Trump may never have done a straight deal in his life, the likelihood of actionable state law wrongdoing is high. Michael Cohen, who is in a position to know, offered that, with the now-inevitable release of his tax and financial records, “it does not look good for him.”

“An investigation is like an onion,” she said. “You never know. You pull something back, and then you find something else.” There is a big onion in Georgia. Trump’s calls to state officials urging them to subvert the election, for instance, could run afoul of a Georgia statute dealing with “criminal solicitation to commit election fraud.” To the extent that Trump was coordinating with Lindsey Graham, who also intervened with the Secretary of State, Rudy Giuliani, or others, conspiracy or even racketeering charges could be brought under Georgia law, Willis suggested.