Donald Trump Still Faces a Reckoning in New York

Last Monday, eighty days after their first courtroom appearance in a case known as The People of the State of New York v. The Trump Corporation, et al., the defendants’ lawyers walked down the hallway on the eleventh floor of the Manhattan Criminal Courts Building, ready to face the judge. The long, timeworn corridor was not crowded; far fewer reporters had gathered than during the initial court hearing, in July, when prosecutors unveiled fifteen felony charges, including tax fraud and grand larceny, against Donald Trump’s company and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg. The packed hallway was so hot that day that someone had jammed a scrunched-up plastic water bottle under the door of the women’s bathroom, propping it open so a bit of cool air after a midday downpour could slip through a window within, past the cruddy stalls and beige-tiled floors and out into the corridor.

The diminished audience last week reflected a perception, aided by Trump’s lawyers, that the case is not all that serious, a sideshow. The alleged crimes committed by the Trump Corporation and Weisselberg relate to the conferring of privileges like luxury apartments, private schools, pricey cars, even parking spots. The word “perks” has slipped into news coverage of the case. But prosecutors have issued new subpoenas and are continuing to use the extensive powers of a New York grand jury to possibly add new charges and new defendants to the case. It’s not clear who those defendants are or what the charges may be. During last Monday’s court appearance, one of Weisselberg’s attorneys, Bryan Skarlatos, said, “We have strong reason to believe there could be other indictments coming.” He expressed concern that Weisselberg could become “collateral damage as part of a bigger fight between the Trump Organization and the District Attorney’s office.”

Even if no additional charges are filed, the former President’s company faces a potential reckoning. The charging documents and interviews with former prosecutors and white-collar defense lawyers indicate that the District Attorney is accumulating evidence of pervasive tax fraud. The case goes to the heart of what made—and still makes—Trump Trump.

The New York State attorney general, Letitia James, and the Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus Vance, Jr., have consolidated their criminal investigations of Trump. At the arraignment hearing, in July, they sat in the front row as the D.A.’s general counsel, Carey Dunne, alleged “a fifteen-year-long tax-fraud scheme, involving off-the-books payments,” that was “orchestrated by the most senior executives, who were financially benefitting themselves and the company by getting secret pay raises at the expense of state and federal taxpayers.” These crimes, prosecutors charge, continued through the entirety of Donald…