Former President Donald Trump is facing a wide array of investigations and lawsuits, but he now has one less potential prosecution to worry about.
It was reported this past week that the Westchester County District Attorney's Office in New York had closed an investigation of the Trump Organization without pursuing any criminal charges, according to the Conservative Brief.
That investigation was centered on allegations that Trump's family business had deliberately manipulated the valuation of certain properties to reduce its tax obligations and secure other financial benefits.
Business Insider reported exclusively on Wednesday that, according to an unnamed source familiar with the situation, Democratic Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah quietly closed down her investigation of the Trump Organization earlier in June.
That move came months after a special prosecutor Rocah hired specifically for the case, Elliot Jacobson, abandoned the effort late last year after determining that there was insufficient evidence to support charges, the alleged conduct involved was beyond the statute of limitations, and the effort likely overlapped with similar ongoing investigations in other jurisdictions.
Indeed, the allegations that the Trump Organization had manipulated property values -- in Westchester County and across the state -- are part of a broad $250 million civil fraud lawsuit filed last year by Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James, who has accused the company of falsely lowering property values to reduce property taxes while simultaneously misleadingly inflating those same values and Trump's reported net worth in order to obtain more favorable terms on bank loans and insurance premiums.
The Westchester DA also found that in addition to being duplicative of the state AG's probe, its investigation was also covering similar ground as the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which has been probing alleged financial crimes by the Trump Organization as well as going after Trump himself over alleged business records falsification in relation to 2016 hush money payments to two women who claimed prior affairs with the businessman.
That resulted in the Westchester investigators, between the offices of the state AG and Manhattan DA, reportedly having trouble getting their hands on the financial documents needed to support possible criminal charges.
Former President Trump responded to that news in typical fashion with an all-caps post to his Truth Social account that said the Westchester DA had done the "honorable thing" by dropping the investigation without pursuing charges after nearly two years since he had done "nothing wrong."
He also posed the timeless rhetorical question of where he should go to "get my reputation back" and asked when all of the "other fake cases," which he has characterized as blatant "election interference," would also be similarly dropped.
Unfortunately for him, according to the Independent, there remains a variety of dozens of pending criminal investigations and civil lawsuits against him and his businesses at the federal, state, and local levels that are unlikely to go away anytime soon.
That includes, in addition to the above-referenced probes, the federal criminal indictment by Special Counsel Jack Smith over his alleged mishandling of government documents after leaving the White House.
It also encompasses numerous investigations and lawsuits with regard to the 2020 election, the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the ever-present claims of sexual harassment and defamation, and an assortment of other current or potential litigation against Trump and the Trump Organization.
What that means is that while Trump certainly scored a victory with Westchester County dropping its probe without charges, he is far from being out of the legal woods just yet.
