How would you like to wake up one morning to the following headline: “Donald Trump Indicted for Criminal Racketeering”?
Well, according to Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist David Cay Johnston, that headline may be breaking soon.
In an interview on MSNBC Saturday, Johnston, author of numerous books chronicling Trump’s shady business dealings, explained charges will come from Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s exhaustive investigation into whether Trump’s company duped lenders or tax authorities about its properties’ values that led to current grand jury proceedings.
“I’m certain he will be indicted…Exactly when? I don’t know. I don’t expect it will be on a straight tax charge. I think there will be a tax charge, but the key charge will be racketeering.”
Timing will depend on how long it takes prosecutors to pour through over five million pages of documents the Trump Organization was compelled to turn over.
But witnesses are testifying to a grand jury this week, and Cy Vance appears determined to indict Trump before retiring at the end of the year.
“Once he’s indicted,” David Cay Johnston explained, “Trump will have to surrender himself to be booked. I’m sure he will be released on his own recognizance, and then we will see a campaign of trying to delay trial.”
He added:
“You will see Donald say, ‘This is corrupt, the prosecutors are corrupt, the police are corrupt, the auditors are corrupt,’ because that’s what Roy Cohn taught him when he was a young man—accuse law enforcement, and then delay, delay, delay.”
Could we finally see long-awaited criminal charges against the most corrupt president in history?
It’s possible, but we mustn’t underestimate Trump’s penchant for exploiting the judicial system trying to bankrupt people he sues and/or running out the clock.
Christmas isn’t here yet.
Image credit: Progressive Charlestown
