Mark Pomerantz’s ‘The People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account’ – Controversy and Criticism Follow Release of Insider Account of Criminal Case Against Former President
On February 2022, renowned former prosecutor and defense lawyer Mark Pomerantz abruptly resigned from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, where he had been recruited in February 2021 to assist in a long-running investigation into former President Donald Trump’s finances and business practices.[0] In his resignation letter, Pomerantz cited frustration over what he saw as the office’s flagging commitment to the inquiry under new DA Alvin Bragg.
Now, Pomerantz is releasing a book, “The People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” which offers a rare look inside the way prosecutors build a criminal case and details how investigators collected evidence, interviewed witnesses, and disagreed over how exactly to proceed with what could be the most significant undertaking by a local DA in American history.[1] Pomerantz is convinced that the evidence proves Trump lied on financial documents and lays out the various criminal charges his team was ready to bring against the former president.[2]
The book has generated controversy, with Bragg raising concerns that it could jeopardize any subsequent prosecution and threatening to sue.[3] On Sunday, discussing Trump’s tax affairs, Pomerantz said on “60 Minutes”: “If you take the exact same conduct, and make it not about Donald Trump and not about a former president of the United States, would the case have been indicted? It would have been indicted in a flat second.”[4]
The book also outlines the team's considerations of whether Trump was suffering from some sort of mental condition that made it impossible for him to distinguish between fact and fiction.[5] Bragg posed probing questions at a follow-up meeting with Pomerantz a couple weeks later, including whether charges against Trump might be time-barred by the relevant statute of limitations and whether the office could establish that the alleged scheme had caused actual losses to the institutions that had received Trump’s financial statements.[6]
“If there are Manhattan District Attorney charges, this book will be Exhibit A in all sorts of motions that Donald Trump could make,” former U.S. Attorney Andrew Weissman said on Monday.[7]
Bragg has fired back, arguing that the case needed more investigation and quipping: “Mr. Pomerantz’s plane wasn’t ready for takeoff.”[4] He added in a statement: “After closely reviewing all the evidence from Mr.
0. “Pomerantz vs. Pomerantz: An Annotation of His Leaked Resignation Letter in Manhattan DA Trump Investigation” Just Security, 7 Feb. 2023, https://www.justsecurity.org/85015/pomerantz-v-pomerantz-an-annotation-of-his-leaked-2022-resignation-letter-in-manhattan-trump-investigation/
1. “Former Prosecutor Just Gave Trump a New Defense Strategy” Newsweek, 7 Feb. 2023, https://www.newsweek.com/former-prosecutor-gave-trump-new-defense-strategy-1779595
2. “New Book Reveals What a Trump Indictment Would Look Like” The Daily Beast, 3 Feb. 2023, https://www.thedailybeast.com/new-book-reveals-what-a-manhattan-da-trump-indictment-would-look-like
3. “Book review of People vs. Donald Trump by Mark Pomerantz” The Washington Post, 3 Feb. 2023, https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2023/02/03/pomerantz-manhattan-da-trump-investigation
4. “Former Manhattan attorney says ‘many bits and pieces of evidence' exist to charge Trump” CNN, 6 Feb. 2023, https://www.cnn.com/2023/02/05/politics/mark-pomerantz-donald-trump-60-minutes/index.html
5. “Prosecutors Feared They'd Have To Prove Trump Wasn't Legally Insane, Book Says” HuffPost, 4 Feb. 2023, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/mark-pomerantz-daily-beast-trump-legally-insane_n_63ddf2c6e4b0c2b49ae31147
6. “Mark Pomerantz's Revealing Fight With Alvin Bragg Over Trump” New York Magazine, 9 Feb. 2023, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2023/02/mark-pomerantzs-revealing-fight-with-alvin-bragg-over-trump.html
7. “Manhattan DA's Office Explored Charging Donald Trump, Says Former Prosecutor” The Wall Street Journal, 3 Feb. 2023, https://www.wsj.com/articles/manhattan-das-office-explored-charging-donald-trump-says-former-prosecutor-11675466488
