New York State just dropped the subpoena hammer on Donald Trump

| 11:06 pm EDT March 11, 2019
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Here we go. If you’ve been waiting to figure out what role New York State would play in the demolition of Donald Trump, beyond serving as a safety net against federal pardons, you’re finally getting your answer. The Attorney General just took Michael Cohen’s testimony and used it to drop the subpoena hammer, in a way that’s going to have Trump howling in agony.

New York State just issued subpoenas to Deutsche Bank for records regarding several specific transactions involving Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, according to a new expose from the New York Times. Why does this matter? Investigators ranging from Special Counsel Robert Mueller to Chairwoman Maxine Waters are already poking around in Trump’s fraudulent relationship with Deutsche Bank. But what makes this different is the specificity.

Instead of trying to seize all of the records and then figure out where the crimes might be hiding in them, New York State already knows precisely what it’s going after. For instance, Cohen publicly testified that Trump falsified his financial situation while attempting to secure a loan to buy the Buffalo Bills football team, and sure enough, that’s one of the transactions New York has just subpoenaed.

If you’re wondering where this is headed, these two sentences from the New York Times article offer a strong hint: “The inquiry by Ms. James’s office is a civil investigation, not a criminal one, although its focus and scope were unclear. The attorney general has broad authority under state law to investigate fraud and can fine — or in extreme cases, go to court to try to dissolve — a business that is found to have engaged in repeated illegality.” That’s right, New York State is looking to take away Donald Trump’s assets while he’s still in office, just as Palmer Report predicted.