On Thursday, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance’s office conducted an “hours-long” interview with former longtime Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, according to the Guardian. Vance’s office questioned Cohen amidst a wide-ranging criminal investigation into the financial dealings of the Trump Organization. Just this week, the news emerged that Vance’s investigation expanded and now includes the Trump Organization’s Seven Springs property, the valuation of which the company is suspected of manipulating in order to get tax benefits. Meanwhile, according to the Guardian, Vance’s office’s new interview with Cohen “focused in part on Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank, his biggest and longest-standing creditor.”
Back on January 8, Cohen seemed to signal his imminent cooperation with authorities like Vance, writing on Twitter as follows:
‘I have been asked and have agreed to cooperate with multiple government agencies to provide testimony on the wrongdoing by #Trump and the #TrumpFamily. I am doing this in large part as #Trump and family have tried, and thankfully failed, to destroy America’s democracy.’
I have been asked and have agreed to cooperate with multiple government agencies to provide testimony on the wrongdoing by #Trump and the #TrumpFamily. I am doing this in large part as #Trump and family have tried, and thankfully failed, to destroy America’s democracy.
— Michael Cohen (@MichaelCohen212) January 9, 2021
In the wake of last week’s deadly violence at the U.S. Capitol that he helped incite, reporting emerged that indicated that Deutsche Bank had decided to do no new business with Trump, although the outgoing president still has outstanding loans from the bank. Other financial institutions, including New York’s Signature Bank and Florida’s Professional Bank, publicly confirmed that they’d be cutting off Trump from future business opportunities.
At Signature Bank, the outgoing president maintained a couple of accounts, while Professional Bank provided an $11 million mortgage to Trump, which is set to mature in 2048. Professional Bank said that they “decided not to engage in any further business with the Trump Organization and its affiliates, and will be winding down the relationship,” while Signature Bank somberly added that they “witnessed the President of the United States encouraging the rioters” at the Capitol. Besides his pre-riot encouragement of his supporters to “fight like hell,” as the violence unfolded, Trump issued a public statement offering rioters his support, saying — among other things — “We love you; you’re very special.” Later in the day on January 6, Trump justified the violence, writing via his since-removed Twitter account that “these are the things and events that happen” when a supposed rightful election victory is stolen — which, of course, didn’t actually happen.
