Manhattan Prosecutors Ramp Up Criminal Investigation Into Trump

A year ago, Alvin Bragg took over the Manhattan DA's office and basically killed the criminal investigation into Donald Trump - an investigation that, prosecutors say, was "days away" from filing criminal charges against the former President. But after the state was able to secure guilty verdicts against the Trump Organization, the dying investigation in Manhattan was given new life. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen sat for 2.5 hours with prosecutors recently, a clear sign that things could be picking up. Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins discusses this.

Check out our merch by visiting our store

Subscribe to our podcast

Become a member today!

Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!

Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content!

Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel

Be sociable! Follow us on:

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

When Alvin Bragg took over as the district attorney for Manhattan last year, actually about a year ago, it was reported later on that that Manhattan DA's office under c Vance, who left as was replaced by Bragg, they were days away, literally days away is what the report said from filing criminal charges against Donald Trump, Brad came in, killed it, uh, basically squashed the entire investigation, but didn't officially close it to the point where the two lead prosecutors quit. They said, this is ridiculous. We've done all these work, all this work, we've put it all together, we have this ready to go, and Bragg basically kills it but doesn't close it. And that's the important thing to remember. Well, things have changed and Alvin Bragg in the last few weeks has really changed his tune recently, actually this week, uh, telling the press that the investigation was on to the next chapter.

So what is that next chapter? Well, we don't know exactly what it is, but we know who is involved in it. And that man happens to be Donald Trump's former lawyer slash fixer Michael Cohen, cuz Michael Cohen sat with those prosecutors for two and a half hours this week. And although he is legally forbidden from telling us what they talked about, he was able to say that. Yep, he talked to him, he feels good. He likes the direction things are going. And Michael Cohen, as we all know, is definitely not a guy who likes Trump anymore and would probably love to see him behind bars. So if Cohen comes out and says, Hey, thumbs up guys, I'm gonna take that as a really great sign. But here's another thing, and this is likely what Cohen was talking about, and this is what the media is speculating. Bragg's office a couple months ago decided to take a second look, a deeper look into the hush money payment to Stormy Daniels, right?

That that's why, I mean, that's what Michael Cohen went to prison for, for Donald Trump. So if they're looking at that again, they could be looking at potential violations of New York campaign finance law. Uh, they could be looking at, cuz we know they actually wrote it off on their taxes, they wrote the hush money payment off on their taxes. So they could be looking at the tax angle on that too. I'm sorry, that's just hilarious. Like corrupt all day long. And then like, Hey, make sure you write the corruption up off on the tax. So I don't want to have to pay for that anything to save a buck, right? Um, but there's a couple other things that have also happened recently that could be lighting the fire under Alvin Braggs behind one of those things. The big one, of course is that the Trump organization was found guilty. Alan Weisselberg was found guilty. They

Have been hit with massive fines. You still have that civil lawsuit pending against Donald Trump and Eric and Don Jr. And Ivanka. But so far the state of New York against the Trump organization and Trump family is winning. And maybe that has kind of relieved some of the fears that Alan Bragg has. And maybe he's looking at those verdicts and saying, okay, you know what, maybe, maybe we can do this. Maybe I don't have to be such a pansy about it. But I tell you what I think the big thing is, I think this is the real reason that Bragg has changed his tune.