USA: The Criminal Investigation Trump Can’t Pardon His Way Out of Is “Significantly Escalating” - by Bess Levin

Donald Trump has been fairly busy these days trying to overthrow the government, but when he gets a moment for other pursuits, there’s one, in particular, he’s devoted a significant amount of time to: presidential pardons, and all the ones he reportedly plans to give out to people “like Christmas gifts.” There are the ones for his adult children and son-in-law, of course, but Trump has also apparently claimed he plans to pardon “every person who ever talked to me.“ (Rudy Giuliani is hoping he’s included on that list.) And then, obviously, there’s the self-pardon he‘s said to have asked about numerous times. That would clearly be in keeping with Trump’s view of the presidency—that it’s all about enriching himself—though unfortunately for him, it’s not a get-out-of-jail-free card. That‘s because it only covers federal matters and, at present, there’s an investigation in New York that’s presumably making him sweat out his Hawaiian Tropic self-tanner.

The New York Times reports that prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, which is probing the possibility Trump or Trump Organization employees committed financial crimes, have interviewed several employees from the president’s bank and insurance broker over recent weeks, “significantly escalating an investigation…that he is powerless to stop.” Lawyers working for Cy Vance are said to have questioned Deutsche Bank employees about the company’s processes for making lending decisions; while the interviews were not focused on the firm’s relationship with Trump, bank officials reportedly expect Vance‘s office to “summon them for additional rounds of more specific questions in the near future.” As the Times notes, employees of Deutsche Bank and Aon, the insurance broker, could be key witnesses, given that the companies have a long history with the president and could “offer investigators a rich vein of information about the Trump organisation.

Read more at: The Criminal Investigation Trump Can’t Pardon His Way Out of Is “Significantly Escalating” | Vanity Fair