Trump’s time in White House could end up benefiting New York prosecutors
Prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have discussed using a section of New York criminal procedure law that they successfully applied in their sexual assault case against disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein to charge him with earlier conduct, people familiar with the matter said.
The section allows for the extension of the statute of limitations when a defendant has been out of state “continuously.”
Since Trump was sworn into office in January 2017, he has spent few days in New York, which means prosecutors could effectively add that time to the clock and investigate earlier conduct.
While that would likely apply only to the former President, legal experts tell CNN that prosecutors also benefit from an executive order that New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued last March that paused the clock on the statute of limitations to address the coronavirus pandemic’s impact on the New York court system.
The executive order could give prosecutors another several months’ worth of conduct by the Trump Organization and its employees to investigate.
A lawyer for Trump declined to comment. A spokesman for the district attorney’s office declined to comment.
Trump has denied the affair. The Trump Organization has maintained that it has not done anything wrong.
Race against the clock
The clock on the investigation has been a significant concern throughout the probe, which launched in 2018. Carey Dunne, general counsel at the district attorney’s office, told a federal judge during their battle to obtain Trump’s tax returns that they had “continuing concerns about the potential loss of critical evidence and expiration of statutes of limitations.”
The district attorney’s office obtained millions of pages of Trump’s tax returns and related documents at the end of last month, and it will take time to dig through them.
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance is not expected to run for reelection, and people familiar with the matter say he is likely to decide on whether to charge a case or close the investigation by the end of the year.
The out-of-town provision is one of several legal maneuvers authorities could consider, as they look to build a case and make charging decisions that would allow them to look beyond the traditional five-year statute of limitations for many New York felonies.
“There are numerous procedural tools in the proverbial woodshed that prosecutors could wield when enforcing the law. Depending on the circumstances, merely because your conduct appears to be outside what is otherwise a strict five-year statute of limitations does not mean you’ll get a pass,” said Jeremy Saland, a former assistant district attorney in Manhattan.
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