(CNN) — A New York judge has found Donald Trump and his adult sons liable for fraud, saying the Trumps provided false financial statements for roughly a decade.

Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling came days before the civil case involving the New York attorney general’s office and the former president was set to go to trial.

Engoron granted Attorney General Letitia James’ motion for summary judgment, finding Trump, his sons, and others “to be liable as a matter of law for persistent violations” of New York state law. He found the financial statements the Trumps provided to lenders and insurers for about a decade to be false and said they repeatedly engaged in fraud.

The decision is a blow to Trump and a complete rejection of his arguments that he didn’t inflate the values of his golf courses, hotels, homes at Mar-a-Lago and Seven Springs on financial statements that were repeatedly used in business.

The attorney general has sought $250 million in damages, a ban on the Trumps from serving as officers of a business in New York, and to stop the company from engaging in business transaction for five years.

Among other things, Trump is accused of inflating the value of his triplex apartment at Trump Tower by three times its size, resulting in an overvaluation of between $114 million to $207 million, Engoron wrote.

“A discrepancy of this order of magnified, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.

“Exacerbating defendants’ obstreperous conduct is their continued reliance on bogus arguments, in papers and oral argument,” Engoron wrote. “In defendants’ world: rent regulated apartments are worth the same as unregulated apartments; restricted land is worth the same as unrestricted land; restrictions can evaporate into thin air; a disclaimer by one party casting responsibility on another party exonerates the other party’s lies …”

The judge added: “That is a fantasy world, not the real world.”

The state supreme court judge likened the Trumps’ legal defense of his fraudulent financial statements to a Chico Marx line in the comedy “Duck Soup”: “Well, who ya gonna believe, me or your own eyes?”

Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise called the ruling “completely disconnected from the facts and governing law.”

He added: “While the full impact of the decision remains unclear, what is clear is that President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice.”

In a statement on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, Eric Trump said: “Today, I lost all faith in the New York legal system. Never before have I seen such hatred toward one person by a judge – a coordinated effort with the Attorney General to destroy a man’s life, company and accomplishments. We have run an exceptional company – never missing a loan payment, making banks hundreds of millions of dollars, developing some of the most iconic assets in the world. Yet today, the persecution of our family continues…”

James has alleged that Trump, three of his children, his companies and his business executives defrauded lenders, insurers and other entities. (An appeals court dismissed Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka, as a co-defendant from the case in June.)

In the lawsuit, James claims that Trump reaped a “substantial” financial benefit by putting forward faulty information in his financial statements, including $150 million in the form of favorable interest rates he obtained from the banks that the attorney general said his team misled.

In the order, the judge rejected Trump’s deposition testimony in which the former president said that the financial statements were not fraudulent because they contained disclaimers. Trump said the statements contained a “worthless clause” in them warning lenders and others that they shouldn’t be relied on.

Tuesday, the judge said that “the defendants’ reliance on these ‘worthless’ disclaimers is worthless.”

The ruling means the attorney general’s office won on its first two claims and will receive some amount of disgorgement to be determined at trial. The case will still proceed to trial but the attorney general’s office won’t need to prove the financial statements are false as they seek to hold him and his sons liable for insurance fraud and false business records.

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(CNN) — Donald Trump appeared for a deposition Thursday as part of a high-stakes civil case brought by New York state against the former president, some of his children and his sprawling business empire.

The former president answered numerous questions in the deposition with the New York attorney general’s office, a source familiar with the matter said, sitting for nearly seven hours plus breaks.

The lawsuit, brought last September by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, alleges that Trump, his children Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, and the Trump Organization were involved in an expansive scheme lasting over a decade by providing false financial statements to lenders and others that the former president used to enrich himself.

The suit is seeking $250 million and bans on the Trumps’ ability to operate a business in the state. The case is set for trial in October. The Trumps have denied wrongdoing.

The former president’s deposition is part of the discovery process of the case, and his attorney said earlier Thursday that he was prepared to answer James’ questions — a notable departure from his refusal to respond to questions from her team during a deposition that occurred a month before the suit was filed.

“He remains resolute in his stance that he has nothing to conceal, and he looks forward to educating the attorney general about the immense success of his multi-billion dollar company,” Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, said in a statement.

James was in the room for at least some of the meeting, the source said.

In a civil case, if a defendant asserts the Fifth Amendment, the jury can make what’s known as an “adverse inference” and place weight against Trump for refusing to answer questions.

Thursday’s appearance marked the first time Trump has been back in New York since he pleaded not guilty last week in Manhattan criminal court to 34 charges of falsifying business records following an investigation into hush money payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.

After Trump’s first sit-down in August, the former president and his legal team have been able to glean more knowledge about the allegations against him because documents and other materials have been turned over to them.

Trump’s three children named in the case were also deposed by the attorney general’s office last year, with Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., both providing answers to prosecutors, while Eric Trump invoked his Fifth Amendment right in 2020 in response to more than 500 questions.

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 (CNN) — Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is suing House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan, over what the lawsuit filed Tuesday describes as a “transparent campaign to intimidate and attack” his office’s case against former President Donald Trump.

The suit injects more legal drama into Bragg’s investigation of Trump, which has been dogged for weeks by accusations from Republicans that the prosecutor’s pursuit of the former president was purely political, with the claims being central to Jordan’s own probe.

Bragg is seeking to block a subpoena for testimony from Mark Pomerantz, a former senior prosecutor in his office, as well as other demands for “confidential documents and testimony from the district attorney himself as well as his current and former employees and officials.” The 50-page suit is asking a federal court to give emergency and permanent relief that would block enforcement of Jordan’s subpoena for Pomerantz to testify on April 20. Pomerantz told Jordan last month that, per instructions from Bragg’s office, he does not plan to cooperate with the subpoena.

US District Judge Mary Kay Vyskocil denied Bragg’s request for emergency relief later Tuesday, though the court could still block the subpoena through other forms of relief. She also set a hearing on the matter for April 19.

“In sum, Congress lacks any valid legislative purpose to engage in a free-ranging campaign of harassment in retaliation for the District Attorney’s investigation and prosecution of Mr. Trump under the laws of New York,” the lawsuit, filed in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, states.

“That campaign is a direct threat to federalism and the sovereign interests of the State of New York. This Court should enjoin the subpoena and put an end to this constitutionally destructive fishing expedition.”

CNN has reached out to Jordan for comment on the lawsuit.

The congressman criticized the lawsuit in a tweet on Tuesday, writing: “First, they indict a president for no crime. Then, they sue to block congressional oversight when we ask questions about the federal funds they say they used to do it.”

In the suit, Bragg knocks Jordan’s assertion that $5,000 in federal funds used in relation to his office’s investigation into Trump that led to the indictment gives the committee grounds to investigate.

Counsel for Bragg’s office previously said it would comply with a committee request for information on the use of federal funds.

Bragg claims in the suit that Trump, Jordan and other members of his committee “are participating in a campaign of intimidation, retaliation, and obstruction,” with the prosecutor saying that a slew of threats directed at him in recent weeks are being fueled by the lawmakers.

“Since Mr. Trump falsely predicted he would be arrested on March 18, 2023, in fact, the District Attorney’s Office has received more than 1,000 calls and emails from Mr. Trump’s supporters, many of which are threatening and racially charged,” the suit states. “But rather than denounce efforts to vilify and denigrate the District Attorney and the grand jury process, House Republicans are participating in those efforts.”

Jordan subpoenaed Pomerantz late last week for his role investigating Trump and his business empire — as House Republicans have sought to frame the recent indictment against the former president as politically motivated.

Pomerantz resigned from the Manhattan DA’s office in 2022 and said in his resignation letter that the former president was “guilty of numerous felony violations” in connection to his annual financial statements. He resigned a day after Bragg informed him that he wasn’t prepared at that point to move forward with criminal charges.

In announcing the subpoena, the House committee said, “Pomerantz’s public statements about the investigation strongly suggest that Bragg’s prosecution of President Trump is politically motivated.”

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records in Manhattan criminal court last week.

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(CNN) — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony criminal charges of falsifying business records in Manhattan criminal court Tuesday afternoon.

The indictment against Trump alleges that the former president sought to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election.

Prosecutors alleged Trump was part of an unlawful plan to suppress negative information, including an illegal payment of $130,000 that was ordered by the defendant to suppress the negative information that would hurt his campaign.

The reason Trump committed the crime of falsifying business records was in part to “promote his candidacy,” the indictment alleges.

The former president’s voice was measured in the courtroom. He walked in slowly scanning the reporters in the courtroom and looked at the judge when he was speaking.

Trump had arrived at the Manhattan district attorney’s office earlier Tuesday afternoon, where he was placed under arrest and in police custody before the arraignment.

The arraignment in the Manhattan courtroom Tuesday represented a surreal and historic moment in US history.

A judge said Monday night that news outlets were not allowed to broadcast the proceedings, rejecting a request from several media organizations, including CNN. Five still photographers, however, will be allowed to take pictures of Trump and the courtroom before the hearing begins.

The indictment returned last week by a grand jury against Trump will provide the public — and Trump’s legal team — with the first details about the specific charges he will face. The investigation stemmed from a hush money payment made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels during the 2016 presidential campaign.

It remains to be seen whether Trump will speak in New York. Chris Kise, one of Trump’s lawyers, said he expects the former president to speak to the cameras in the hallway outside of the courtroom before and after his arraignment, and multiple people familiar with Trump’s thinking tell CNN that he has weighed saying something while still in Manhattan. Advisers have warned him, however, that any unplanned remarks put him at high risk of hurting his case.

Trump is slated to fly back to Florida following his court appearance and will hold an event at Mar-a-Lago Tuesday evening that gives the 2024 Republican presidential hopeful a chance to respond to the charges.

While Trump’s comments will signal how he intends to fight the charges against him in the political arena, the former president is also preparing for the fight in court: He added a new attorney, Todd Blanche, to serve as lead counsel on his defense team on Monday.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s indictment marks the first criminal charges against Trump, but it’s not the only potential legal trouble in front of the former president: Special counsel Jack Smith is still moving forward with an investigation into Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and the handling of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. And a Fulton County special grand jury has completed its investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia.

Trump arrived in New York on Monday afternoon, flying up on his jet from Palm Beach. He stayed overnight in Trump Tower, 4 miles north to the courthouse in downtown Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon.

Law enforcement in New York and the US Secret Service have been planning for the prospect of Trump’s appearance at the courthouse for weeks.

This story has been updated with additional details.

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(CNN) — Donald Trump has been indicted by a Manhattan grand jury, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter — the first time in American history that a current or former president has faced criminal charges.

The indictment has been filed under seal and will be announced in the coming days. The charges are not publicly known at this time, one source told CNN.

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office will reach out to Trump’s attorneys to discuss his surrender to face an arraignment.

CNN has reached out to Trump’s attorneys for comment.

The DA’s office has been investigating the former president in connection with his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up involving adult film star Stormy Daniels that dates to the 2016 presidential election.

The decision is sure to send shockwaves across the country, pushing the American political system — which has never seen one of its ex-leaders confronted with criminal charges, let alone while running again for president — into uncharted waters.

The legal action against Trump jolts the 2024 presidential campaign into a new phase — where the former president has vowed to keep running in the face of criminal charges.

Trump has frequently called the various investigations surrounding him a “witch hunt,” attempting to sway public opinion on them by casting himself as a victim of what he’s claimed are political probes led by Democratic prosecutors. As the indictment reportedly neared, Trump urged his supporters to protest his arrest, echoing his calls to action following the 2020 election as he tried to overturn his loss to President Joe Biden.

Trump has long avoided legal consequences in his personal, professional and political lives. He has settled a number of private civil lawsuits through the years and paid his way out of disputes concerning the Trump Organization, his namesake company. As president, he was twice impeached by the Democratic-led House, but avoided conviction by the Senate.

In December, the Trump Organization was convicted on multiple charges of tax fraud, though Trump himself was not charged in that case.

Trump’s Republican allies — as well as his 2024 GOP rivals — have condemned the Manhattan district attorney’s office over the looming indictment, and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has vowed to launch an investigation into the matter.

Bragg’s office had signaled as recently as early March that they were close to bringing charges against Trump after they invited the ex-president to testify before the grand jury probing the hush money scheme. Potential defendants in New York are required by law to be notified and invited to appear before a grand jury weighing charges. But Trump ultimately declined to appear before the panel.

The long-running investigation first began under Bragg’s predecessor, Cy Vance, when Trump was in office. It relates to a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s then-personal attorney Michael Cohen to Daniels in late October 2016, days before the 2016 presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

At issue in the investigation is the payment made to Daniels and the Trump Organization’s reimbursement to Cohen.

According to court filings in Cohen’s own federal prosecution, Trump Organization executives authorized payments to him totaling $420,000 to cover his original $130,000 payment and tax liabilities and reward him with a bonus. The Trump Organization noted the reimbursements as a legal expense in its internal books. Trump has denied knowledge of the payment.

This story is breaking and will be updated.

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(CNN) — Manhattan prosecutors have invited former President Donald Trump to appear before the grand jury investigating his alleged role in a hush money payment scheme and cover-up, a person familiar with the matter said, indicating a decision on charging Trump may come soon.

Potential defendants in New York are required by law to be notified and invited to appear before a grand jury weighing charges. It is unclear if Trump would appear.

The New York Times first reported the development.

Trump would be the first former president ever indicted and also the first major presidential candidate under indictment seeking office. He has said he “wouldn’t even think about leaving” the race if charged.

Trump is facing criminal inquiries related to his activities before, during and after his presidency.

In addition to the New York City investigation, Fulton County, Georgia, prosecutors have been probing the effort by Trump and his allies to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results, and a Justice Department special counsel is investigating Trump’s role in the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, and Trump’s handling of classified material after he left office.

Trump’s lawyer recently met with the district attorney’s office, one source told CNN. His legal team has been concerned with Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s intentions because of recently ramped up activity at the grand jury, according to another source familiar with the matter. Former Trump White House aides Hope Hicks and Kellyanne Conway recently appeared before the grand jury.

The Manhattan district attorney’s office declined to comment to CNN.

“The Manhattan District Attorney’s threat to indict President Trump is simply insane. For the past five years, the DA’s office has been on a Witch Hunt, investigating every aspect of President Trump’s life, and they’ve come up empty at every turn — and now this,” Trump’s spokesman said in a statement to CNN.

Stormy Daniels hush money payment

The investigation relates to a $130,000 payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels in late October 2016, days before the 2016 presidential election, to silence her from going public about an alleged affair with Trump a decade earlier. Trump has denied the affair.

In a lengthy response on his Truth Social account Thursday night, Trump said in part, “I did absolutely nothing wrong, I never had an affair with Stormy Daniels.”

Hush money payments aren’t illegal. Prosecutors are weighing whether to charge Trump with falsifying the business records of the Trump Organization for how it reflected the reimbursement of the payment to Michael Cohen, Trump’s then-fixer who said he advanced the money to Daniels. Falsifying business records is a misdemeanor in New York.

Prosecutors are also weighing whether to charge Trump with falsifying business records in the first degree for falsifying a record with the intent to commit another crime or to aid or conceal another crime, which in this case could be a violation of campaign finance laws. That is a Class E felony and carries a sentence of a minimum of one year and as much as four years.

The Trump Organization noted the reimbursements as a legal expense in its internal books. Trump has previously denied knowledge of the payment.

If the district attorney’s office moves forward with charges, it’s not without risk. Trump’s lawyers could challenge whether campaign finance laws would apply as a crime to make the case a felony.

CNN reported last month that Jeffrey McConney, the controller of the Trump Organization, would appear in front of the grand jury, according to people familiar with matter. McConney is one of the highest-ranking financial officers at the Trump Organization and has responsibility for its books and records.

Cohen meets with prosecutors

Trump’s former personal attorney Michael Cohen is meeting with the Manhattan district attorney’s office on Friday and is set to appear Monday as well, CNN’s Don Lemon has reported.

Speaking to reporters has he walked into court Friday, Cohen said he has not yet testified in front of a grand jury.

“I have to applaud District Attorney Bragg for giving Donald the opportunity to come in and to tell his story,” Cohen said. “Now knowing Donald as well as I do, understand that, he doesn’t tell the truth. It’s one thing to turn around and to lie on your ‘Untruth Social’ and it’s another thing to turn around and to lie before a grand jury. So I don’t suspect that he’s going to be coming.”

When asked about whether the invitation for Trump to testify in front of the grand jury may indicate an indictment is near, Cohen said, “That seems to be the general consensus.”

This story has been updated with additional details.

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“We examined Mr. Trump on a variety of issues including statements he has made at various campaign events and rallies that counsel believes encouraged violence at those events or encouraged security guards to engage in violence or the confiscation of property,” said Benjamin Dictor, attorney for the men who filed the 2015 lawsuit.

Dictor declined to characterize Trump’s testimony or answer whether he believed it to be truthful.

“The President was exactly how you would expect him to be, he answered questions the way you would expect Mr. Trump to answer questions and conducted himself in a manner that you would expect Mr. Trump to conduct himself,” Dictor said.

Trump’s deposition was several years in the making. A New York judge first ordered Trump’s videotaped deposition in 2019 but it was paused while Trump was in the White House.

The case centers around a lawsuit filed in 2015 by a group self-described as “human rights activists of Mexican origin” who were protesting Trump’s rhetoric on immigration in front of Trump Tower in September of that year.

The men allege that Trump’s then-head of security, Keith Schiller, hit one of the protesters, Efrain Galicia, in the head after Galicia tried to stop Schiller from taking their large cardboard signs, which read, “Trump: Make America Racist Again.”

The lawsuit alleges that when Galicia tried to hold onto one of the signs, Schiller ripped it away from him, tearing it to pieces. Lawyers for the plaintiffs wanted to question Trump to discern whether he was responsible for his employees’ conduct outside Trump Tower that day.

Dictor called Monday’s testimony a victory for the rule of law.

“What I can say about what transpired in this building today is that there was demonstration that our processes, our legal processes still work. The judicial system still works. No one is above the law. Donald John Trump sat in a chair, put his right hand up and he took an oath, he took an oath to tell the truth. And nothing but the truth. And he answered questions for several hours with his counsel present and that is part of what we call due process in this country,” Dictor said.

“And maybe some of us forget that that applies to everyone, in the course of the last several years but I think today serves as a demonstration that our institutions are intact and the rule of law is supreme above all else in this country,” he added.

In a statement, the former President called the deposition “harassment.”

New York state Supreme Court Judge Doris Gonzalez had ordered the deposition.

Earlier this month, the former President was ordered by another New York judge to answer questions under oath by December 23 in the defamation lawsuit brought by former “The Apprentice” contestant Summer Zervos. Zervos accused Trump of defamation when he denied her allegations of sexual assault. Trump has denied the assault.

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New York Attorney General Letitia James is joining the Manhattan district attorney’s office in a criminal investigation of the Trump Organization, James’ office said Tuesday.

The attorney general office’s investigation into the Trump Organization, which has been underway since 2019, will also continue as an ongoing civil probe, but the office recently informed Trump Organization officials of the criminal component.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature. We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA,” James’ spokesman Fabien Levy told CNN. “We have no additional comment.”

A lawyer for the Trump Organization declined to comment when reached by CNN.

James’ office is working with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s Office, whose wide-sweeping probe into the Trump Organization has looked into whether the company misled lenders and insurance companies about the value of properties and whether it paid the appropriate taxes.

Vance’s office is examining millions of pages of documents that include Trump’s tax returns.

A person familiar with the investigation said a couple of investigators with the New York attorney general’s office, who are steeped in knowledge about the Trump Organization, have joined the district attorney’s team. A different person familiar with the matter said the New York attorney general is still conducting a civil investigation.

Former President Donald Trump has previously called the New York attorney general’s investigation politically motivated.

For the past two years, James’ office looked into matters including whether or not it improperly inflated assets on financial statements to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits, as well as how Trump Organization employees were compensated.

Investigators there have deposed multiple Trump Organization officials including Eric Trump, the former President’s son, and Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg.

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Five independently elected investigators have turned their attention to former President Donald Trump, a sign his legal woes are mounting as he no longer enjoys the protections once afforded to him by the Oval Office.

Trump is now facing inquiries run by elected officials from Georgia to New York to Washington with only their constituents to answer to. Most are Democrats, but one key investigation was launched by a Georgia Republican who has faced heavy criticism from Trump since the election.

And the former President’s actions on his way out of office, including his attempts to overturn the 2020 election results and to stir up his supporters with baseless claims of fraud until they stormed the US Capitol on a harrowing January day, have only added to his legal problems.

“It’s never happened in our history but every single one of these prosecutors and attorneys general has more than sufficient predication to investigate what they’re investigating,” said Daniel R. Alonso, who was a top deputy to Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance from 2010 to 2014.

There are signs the probes are picking up. In New York, investigators recently got their hands on Trump’s tax returns and have bolstered their team with a prosecutor who specializes in complex financial cases. In Georgia, another prosecutor plans to begin requesting subpoenas from a grand jury as early as this week.

“The world has changed for Donald Trump, legally, now that he’s no longer president,” said Elie Honig, a former federal and state prosecutor and a CNN legal analyst. “Donald Trump tried to delay civil suits against him, he tried to delay subpoenas against him while he was president. All of that is gone now, so now we’re seeing multiple investigators — federal and state — digging in and taking a hard look at Donald Trump.”

All eyes on the Empire State

In Manhattan, all eyes are on Vance, who has been investigating Trump’s finances for two years and is not expected to run for reelection.

The Democrat has 10 months left in his term — setting the clock, some said, for him to wrap up his investigation.

“It’s likely that the case, if it is charged, would be charged before Vance leaves office,” said Anne Milgram, a former attorney general for New Jersey and former federal prosecutor.

“That’s because that’s 10 months away — which is a long time in a criminal investigation — and because the DA’s office had previously noted that there were statutes of limitations timing issues,” she said.

Prosecutors have already interviewed witnesses, subpoenaed documents from lenders, an insurance broker and others, and last month recruited a former federal prosecutor with a background in complex financial investigations to bolster their team.

Last week investigators also received a trove of records, including tax returns, financial statements, and communications between the Trump Organization and Mazars, Trump’s long-time accountant, after the Supreme Court denied Trump’s latest bid to block Vance from accessing those records.

“I think the goal will be to move quickly and, if they believe a crime has been committed, they will move to present the case to the grand jury within months, not years,” Milgram said.

Vance, the son of a former US secretary of state and Washington insider, spent the better part of his legal career as a white-collar criminal defense lawyer. He ran for district attorney and was sworn into office in 2010 after a more than 30-year run by his predecessor Robert Morgenthau.

He has been innovative in pursuing some cases and in 2019, Vance’s office obtained the first conviction on state domestic terrorism charges.

But some of his victories have been tinged by controversy.

When Vance brought criminal charges against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein for sexual assault following the rise of the #metoo movement, Weinstein’s conviction was hailed as a “new era of justice” by Time’s Up, a women’s advocacy group. But it came only after an earlier decision in 2015 to decline to prosecute Weinstein after an Italian model accused him of groping her and recorded Weinstein on tape saying, “I won’t do it again.”

Vance was also criticized for not prosecuting Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, who were investigated in 2012 for allegedly misleading potential buyers for units in the Trump SoHo, a New York hotel property. In both instances, lawyers for the individuals had donated to Vance’s campaign.

Vance defended himself, telling reporters in 2017 that the donations had no impact on his thinking. His office said the allegations against Weinstein were “horrifying” but there was not sufficient evidence to charge him.

“At the end of the day, we operate in the courtroom of the law, not the courtroom of public opinion,” Vance said.

Alonso, the former Vance deputy, has previously said sometimes a district attorney is successful by deciding not to file charges.

On the Trump investigation, he said, Vance will not be political.

“He knows that the job is not to lick your finger and hold it up to the wind and decide which way the wind is blowing before you make a decision,” Alonso said. “He will look at the evidence and decide who he believes is guilty and whether he can prove it.”

Another New York investigation

One of the biggest thorns in Trump’s side has been New York Attorney General Letitia James.

When James was running for office in 2018, she campaigned on a pledge to investigate everything from Trump’s policies to his finances.

“I’m running for attorney general because I will never be afraid to challenge this illegitimate president when our fundamental rights are at stake,” James said at the time.

Her record since has shown that she meant it: She challenged the Trump administration’s addition of a citizen question to the US census, pushed for the New York legislature to pass a law to close a presidential pardon loophole, and wrapped up a lawsuit brought by her predecessor that led to the dissolution of the Trump Foundation.

Now her office is digging into Trump’s business and personal finances, exploring whether assets were improperly valued and if banks or tax authorities were defrauded. James has won court victories with a judge compelling Eric Trump, who co-runs the day-to-day operations of Trump Organization, to sit for a deposition and ordering Trump’s tax lawyer to turn over reams of documents.

James has been a trailblazer, becoming the first African American woman to hold city-wide office when she was elected New York City’s public advocate in 2013 and then the first woman elected to serve as New York’s attorney general and first African American woman to hold statewide office. Her political ambitions are not limited to the AG’s office. She has mused about running for mayor and some have speculated she could make a bid for governor if Andrew Cuomo does not run again for office.

Cuomo backed James in her bid for attorney general but their ties have recently been tested. James issued a scathing report in January finding the New York Department of Health undercounted Covid-19 deaths among nursing home residents by about 50%, setting off a political crisis for Cuomo.

Over the weekend, she publicly pushed back on Cuomo’s plans to investigate sexual harassment claims brought against him. Cuomo initially said he would appoint a retired federal judge to investigate the claims by two women. When that move was met with harsh criticism, he then said he would ask James and the chief judge in New York to appoint an independent investigator. Ultimately, he ceded ground to James who alone will select an independent law firm to investigate the allegations against the governor.

Cuomo says he never inappropriately touched or propositioned anyone, but did apologize to anyone who may have misinterpreted his comments in the workplace as unwanted flirtation.

“She’s been a strong independent voice throughout her career,” said Robert Abrams, New York attorney general from 1978-1994 and a member of James’ transition team. “All of this demonstrates that she has shown courage and tenacity for what she believes is right, what is her duty and responsibility.”

Trump has seized on James’ past comments, saying her actions against him are politically motivated. In a court filing challenging Vance’s subpoena for his tax returns, Trump’s lawyers quoted James nine times, including when she said, “I will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings.”

James said Trump is wrong about her.

“I’m not biased. I represent the state—all individuals, all citizens in the state of New York, whether you’re Republican and or Democrat,” James told Marie Claire in January. “That is my duty and that is the mission.”

Georgia’s GOP investigator

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office is also investigating Trump, for his attempts to overturn the state’s election results.

When Trump lost the presidential election, no state official was in his crosshairs more than Raffensperger, a lifelong Republican. Even as tension and pressure from Trump were on public display, Georgia’s top election official said he had supported Trump and publicly stated multiple times that he wished Trump had won.

But while saying he was personally disappointed in the results as a conservative Republican, Raffensperger steadfastly refused to give credence to a litany of conspiracy theories bolstered by the then-President alleging election fraud in Georgia.

Since the rioting at the US Capitol on January 6, Raffensperger has offered a more critical take on Trump’s actions.

“Many of the actions that he’s taken since then are not what you would expect from a president,” Raffensperger told CNN in January. “I’ve said from day one that we have to be really mindful of our speech because we can’t spin people up and play people and get them into an emotional frenzy.”

Raffensperger’s is the rare Republican-led investigation, made more awkward by the fact that Raffensperger was a direct witness to Trump’s attempts to influence the outcome of the election.

A source familiar with the Georgia secretary of state’s investigation confirmed officials are looking at two calls. One is the January phone call, of which CNN obtained the audio. In it,Trump pushed Raffensperger to “find” votes to overturn the election results after his loss to Biden. The other involves a call Trump made on December 23, to a Georgia election investigator in the secretary of state’s office who was leading a probe into allegations of ballot fraud in Cobb County. Trump is heard asking the chief investigator with Raffensperger’s office to to search for dishonesty in the 2020 presidential election, telling the individual that the investigation was of national importance, according to a source with knowledge of the call.

Trump’s senior adviser, Jason Miller, said in a statement last month that there was nothing “improper or untoward” about the call between Trump and Raffensperger.

“And the only reason the call became public was because Mr. Raffensperger leaked it in an attempt to score political points,” Miller’s statement said.

Raffensperger’s office declined to comment, saying they don’t comment on active investigations.

Twenty investigators work in Raffensperger’s office statewide, and the team has a lot on its plate. They’re currently working on 252 cases from 2020 that are open or pending presentation to the state election board, a source familiar with the Georgia secretary of state’s investigations confirmed to CNN.

The office investigates every complaint it receives and described the investigations as “fact-finding and administrative in nature,” according to a statement on February 8, the day it opened an inquiry into the infamous calls.

Once Raffensperger’s office completes its investigation, the findings will be reported to the state election board, which may decide that probable cause merits there was a violation, and that the case should be referred to Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis or additionally, Georgia’s attorney general for further investigation, according to two people familiar with the process.

Georgia digs in on election meddling

In addition to the investigation by Raffensperger’s office, Willis is looking into Trump’s call to the Georgia secretary of state, looking to sway Georgia’s election results in his favor.

When that call took place on January 2, Willis had only been in office one day. By early February, her office began firing off letters to Georgia officials asking them to preserve documents related to attempts to influence the state’s election as she investigates potential crimes including the solicitation of election fraud, conspiracy and racketeering. According to the letters, none of the Georgia officials are targets of the investigation.

The probe instantly elevated the newly elected prosecutor’s national profile. But it also irked some Georgia residents who believe the focus on Trump will drain attention and resources from local issues in Fulton County, which includes much of the city of Atlanta.

Those who know Willis, though, were unsurprised to see her forge ahead.

“There’s some evidence saying a law might’ve been broken. It might’ve been done in her jurisdiction, she’s going to investigate it,” said Charlie Bailey, who previously worked closely with Willis in the district attorney’s office and is running for state attorney general in 2022. “I know it is different because it’s a former president. I do realize that, and I know she realizes that too, but she takes that very seriously.”

Willis, a Democrat and a longtime prosecutor, ousted her former boss to become the county’s first female district attorney in January. She and her staff have been juggling an avalanche of interest in the Trump investigation with an office that was already buckling under its caseload, according to a source familiar with the investigation.

One of her first moves was asking the state attorney general to reassign two high-profile cases against Atlanta police officers for alleged use of excessive force, including in the shooting death of Rayshard Brooks. Her critics believe it’s a sign her priorities are elsewhere.

“If the DA’s office has time and the resources and all the time and manpower to do that — go after Trump for this election stuff or whatever — just make sure that the civil rights cases that are in her county are treated equally and take the same kind of priority,” said Chris Stewart, a lawyer for the Brooks family.

“What do we do now?” Stewart asked. “Families are stuck in the middle.”

Meantime, Willis has said her Trump investigation will stretch beyond Trump’s call with Raffensperger to include any efforts to influence the election in Georgia.

She has said in interviews she may begin requesting subpoenas from a grand jury as early as March. And that grand jury will draw from a pool of constituents in Fulton County unlikely to be sympathetic to Trump: President Joe Biden won the county with nearly 73% of the vote in November.

“I have no idea what I’m going to find,” Willis told CNN affiliate WSB last month. “A good law enforcement officer, a good prosecutor, you walk in with an open mind.”

Willis is perhaps best known in Georgia for her role in the 2014 prosecution of a dozen educators accused of being involved in a cheating scandal. Eleven were convicted on racketeering charges.

Her former colleagues said she’s unlikely to be intimidated by taking on the former President. But she has acknowledged doubling her security amid threats.

“Interestingly enough, the comments are always racist. And it’s really just a waste of time and foolishness,” Willis told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow last month. “It’s not going to stop me from doing my job, and I don’t think that it’s an insult to remind me that I am a Black woman.”

Another crack at Trump in DC

For Karl Racine, there’s perhaps little downside in pursuing yet another case against Trump.

Racine, who became Washington, DC’s first elected attorney general when he took office in 2015, serves a constituency that overwhelmingly favors Democrats. In 2020, 92% of the District voted for Biden.

Racine previously took on Trump in a lawsuit alleging conflicts between the then-President’s business interests and his oath of office. The lawsuit was rendered moot when Trump left office.

For Racine’s latest pursuit, it appears to be a waiting game as prosecutors investigate whether the former President’s alleged role in the insurrection violated the city’s incitement of violence law, and determine whether it’s best to partner with the US attorney’s office.

“They don’t want to bring charges without the cooperation of the federal government,” former DC Attorney General Bob Spagnoletti said. “They’re not going to step out on a limb here.”

Racine’s office only enforces local codes for the city, while the prosecution of both major and federal crimes falls under the purview of the Justice Department.

Racine has said he is focused on the incitement of violence charge available to him under the DC code, but the charge only carries a maximum of six months in prison, and legal experts note Racine wouldn’t have the authority to force Trump back to Washington to appear in court.

Spagnoletti points out it would be most advantageous for Racine to work in connection with the US attorney in DC, especially since only that office has the power to convene a grand jury.

“Because Karl Racine doesn’t have one, he needs to be able to work with the US attorney to gather evidence expeditiously, and not grind it to a halt which is what will happen without a coordinated strategy,” Spagnoletti said.

Acting US Attorney Michael Sherwin has said his office will weigh potentially charging all actors involved in the insurrection but has declined to elaborate on whether that also means Trump. It’s unclear if Sherwin will remain in his post if Merrick Garland is confirmed as US attorney general.

Racine did reveal in January that his office was “collaborating at a high level with federal prosecutors.”

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The Justice Department has started to probe a series of stock transactions made by lawmakers ahead of the sharp market downturn stemming from the spread of coronavirus, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The inquiry, which is still in its early stages and being done in coordination with the Securities and Exchange Commission, has so far included outreach from the FBI to at least one lawmaker, Sen. Richard Burr, seeking information about the trades, according to one of the sources.

Public scrutiny of the lawmakers’ market activity has centered on whether members of Congress sought to profit from the information they obtained in non-public briefings about the virus epidemic.

Burr, the North Carolina Republican who heads the Senate Intelligence Committee, has previously said that he relied only on public news reports as he decided to sell between $628,000 and $1.7 million in stocks on February 13. Earlier this month, he asked the Senate Ethics Committee to review the trades given “the assumption many could make in hindsight,” he said at the time.

There’s no indication that any of the sales, including Burr’s, broke any laws or ran afoul of Senate rules. But the sales have come under fire after senators received closed-door briefings about the virus over the past several weeks — before the market began trending downward. It is routine for the FBI and SEC to review stock trades when there is public question about their propriety.

In a statement Sunday to CNN, Alice Fisher, a lawyer for Burr, said that the senator “welcomes a thorough review of the facts in this matter, which will establish that his actions were appropriate.”

“The law is clear that any American — including a Senator — may participate in the stock market based on public information, as Senator Burr did. When this issue arose, Senator Burr immediately asked the Senate Ethics Committee to conduct a complete review, and he will cooperate with that review as well as any other appropriate inquiry,” said Fisher, who led the Justice Department’s criminal division under former President George W. Bush.

Congress passed the Stock Act in 2012, which made it illegal for lawmakers to use inside information for financial benefit.

Under insider trading laws, prosecutors would need to prove the lawmakers traded based on material non-public information they received in violation of a duty to keep it confidential.

Burr’s committee has received periodic briefings on coronavirus as the outbreak has spread, but the committee did not receive briefings on the virus the week of Burr’s stock sales, another source familiar with the matter told CNN earlier this month.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department, the FBI and the SEC declined to comment.

In an interview with CNBC on Monday morning, SEC Chairman Jay Clayton would not confirm the inquiry, but sent a warning about trading with private information.

“Anyone who is privy to private information about a company or about markets needs to be cautious about how they use that private information. That’s fundamental to our securities laws and that applies to government employees, public officials, etc, and the Stock Act codifies that,” Clayton said.

Burr’s sales represent a sizable share of his portfolio of stocks, according to his latest Senate financial disclosure documents filed in May 2019, although exact numbers aren’t possible because lawmakers only report trades as a range of dollar values.

Several other senators from both parties also sold and bought stock ahead of the market downturn that resulted from the coronavirus pandemic, although it’s not clear who else the Justice Department is looking at and no other senator said they have been contacted by law enforcement. Burr is the only lawmaker to have asked for an Ethics Committee review.

GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and her husband sold 27 stocks valued between $1.275 million and $3.1 million from January 24 through February 14, according to Senate records.

They also purchased three stocks at a value of $450,000-$1 million, including shares in Citrix, a software company that’s gained approximately 15% in value since Loeffler and her husband bought the stock last month.

Loeffler, who was appointed to her seat in December and was sworn in in early January, has denied having any knowledge of the stock sales, saying she uses a third-party financial adviser and did not learn of the trades until later. Loeffler’s husband, Jeffrey Sprecher, is chairman of the New York Stock Exchange.

A Loeffler spokesperson confirmed Loeffler has not been contacted by the FBI and said the senator “has acted in accordance with the letter and the spirit of the law.”

Others who traded relatively smaller amounts or sold fewer stocks than Burr and Loeffler have also faced public scrutiny.

Stock sales were reported last month by Sens. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, and Jim Inhofe, an Oklahoma Republican. Both Feinstein’s and Inhofe’s offices said the senators had not been contacted by the FBI.

Feinstein herself did not sell any stock, according to Senate records. Her husband sold between $1.5 million and $6 million in stock of Allogene Therapeutics, a biotech company, in January and February. Feinstein said earlier this month that she has no involvement in her husband’s financial decisions.

“I have no input into his decisions. My husband in January and February sold shares of a cancer therapy company. This company is unrelated to any work on the coronavirus and the sale was unrelated to the situation,” she said in a statement.

Inhofe sold five stocks, worth between $180,000 and $400,000, in January, and another for $50,000-$100,000 in February. But he said in a statement earlier this month that he had no involvement in his investment decisions.

This story has been updated with additional information.

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