The New York Times reports:

After all the suspicion and anticipation, it was not a conspiracy involving Russia, widespread money laundering or a sweeping allegation of racketeering and corruption.

Instead, it was an investigation that uncovered the alleged abuse of run-of-the-mill perks — like car leases, apartments and school tuition — that transformed Donald J. Trump’s family business from real estate branding empire to criminal defendant.

On Thursday, prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced charges against the Trump Organization and its chief financial executive, Allen H. Weisselberg, alleging a scheme lasting over a decade in which Mr. Weisselberg failed to pay taxes on close to $2 million worth of perks and bonuses as the company benefited from helping him do so.

While there is no indication that Mr. Trump himself will face criminal charges anytime soon, the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., has said that “the work continues,” and the former president will remain the focus of the investigation as prosecutors exert pressure on Mr. Weisselberg to cooperate. Mr. Trump has escaped numerous law enforcement inquiries over the better part of three decades, and he could well do so again. Even so, the case brought by Mr. Vance on Thursday has already struck at the heart of Mr. Trump’s public image — the business of the businessman — in a way no other investigation has done.

The fallout could be significant. An indictment against a company — let alone a conviction — can jeopardize relationships with banks and business partners. The former president is facing down hundreds of millions of dollars in loans that need to be repaid, and the legal threat to his business could deal a blow to his finances. [Continue reading…]

Timothy L. O’Brien writes:

Weisselberg is one of the few people in the Trump Organization to have regularly dealt directly with Trump on pivotal financial matters. Others include Trump’s three eldest children, who worked there; his controller, Jeffrey McConney; and his former in-house legal counsel, Jason Greenblatt. All of them are certainly aware that, with Trump, loyalty has typically been a one-way street, and that he has rarely supported others when his own livelihood or personal prospects have been threatened. That may inform how Weisselberg and others ultimately weigh their own loyalty if their legal perils escalate.

Trump is mired in two investigations — Vance’s and a related criminal probe overseen by New York State Attorney General Letitia James — that have delved more deeply into his personal and corporate finances than any other outside examination he’s encountered. He and his company have never before faced the prospect of criminal charges. Given those stakes, Trump will surely be tempted to try distancing himself from any evidence of fraud and from those found guilty of engineering crimes. [Continue reading…]