The resignations in protest by the two seasoned prosecutors leading the Manhattan district attorney probe into Donald Trump might be a lucky break for the former con man in chief, but could be a blow against justice.
We don’t know what we don’t know: The evidence against Trump, presented in confidential proceedings, isn’t available for public dissection. But we do know that before Wednesday, Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz were following the facts, the law and the evidence with a grand jury of 23 Manhattanites. Then both men quit, submitting resignation letters to new DA Alvin Bragg. The obvious inference is that they were frustrated with the long stall under the new boss.
We’ve asked Bragg’s office for their parting letters. Citing policy regarding personnel matters, staff is declining to turn them over. We will be filing a formal Freedom of Information Law request for the letters. Anything that is of a personal nature, like an illness, or protected by grand jury secrecy laws, can be redacted.
What precisely was the breaking point for Dunne and Pomerantz? Dunne had been former DA Cy Vance’s general counsel and had headed up the Trump probe for the last years. Pomerantz, an expert on financial crimes, was brought in especially to work on the Trump case. It was Dunne who successfully argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020 that Trump being president didn’t shield him from the grand jury getting his financial records. Those documents were surrendered to the grand jury a year ago and the Trump Organization and Trump money man Allen Weisselberg were indicted in July.
A new grand jury was impaneled in November and is due to expire in April. The sudden departure of the two lead prosecutors doesn’t leave much time for their replacement, Susan Hoffinger, the executive ADA and chief of investigations, to familiarize herself with the millions of pages of complex documents.
Trump is not above the law, nor should he suffer any penalty for being Trump. If the evidence is there, press the case.
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