As a New York criminal investigation of former President Donald Trump and his business moves forward, The Washington Post has revealed that a new grand jury has been convened to hear relevant evidence, and apparently, prosecutors’ continued interests include initiation fees at Trump-branded golf courses. According to the Post, “Prosecutors recently inquired about the initiation fees Trump golf courses charged new members, the [source] said, and Trump’s role in setting those fees for individual customers. Trump often cited his clubs’ initiation fees in the statements he sent potential lenders, as a sign of the courses’ financial health.”
The convening of a new grand jury — and prosecutors’ specific investigative focuses — mean that new criminal charges could be unveiled, although that’s not a certainty. Investigators have already been examining whether Trump lied to financial institutions, and his company (and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg) have been charged with lying to authorities regarding financial matters and evading taxes on pricey executive benefits. As for the golf course initiation fees, the charges could have been inappropriately adjusted to fit Trump’s personal purposes, which would fit in with decades-long patterns of business corruption by the now former president at his company.
Trump is also facing scrutiny on other fronts. He has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to stop the House committee investigating the Capitol riot from obtaining hundreds of specific pages of records from his administration, including items like handwritten notes by then-White House chief of staff Mark Meadows regarding the events of January 6. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), who serves on the riot investigation committee, revealed that the panel has already interviewed over 150 people in some form, indicating that — no matter the former president’s protestations — the investigation is moving forward. Meanwhile, a trial on the tax evasion charges for the Trump company and Weisselberg is slated for late next year, as of now.
