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Government Watchdogs Advocate for Transfer of Criminal Investigation of the Trump Organization to NY Attorney General
The three-year criminal inquiry into the Trump Organization’s financial crimes was suspended indefinitely when Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg took office in January.
WASHINGTON
Nonprofit advocacy organizations Free Speech For People and Daily Kos have launched a petition urging New York Governor Kathy Hochul to reassign the suspended criminal investigation of the Trump Organization to the Office of the New York Attorney General or to another District Attorney's Office in the state.
Since 2019, the Manhattan District Attorney's Office has gathered incriminating evidence of numerous financial crimes committed by the Trump Organization, including tax and bank-related fraud. Investigators have shown that the Trump Organization consistently inflated the values of Trump's properties to obtain favorable loans and lowered them to reduce taxes.
The decision by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who came into office in January of this year and took over the three-year investigation into Trump's financial crimes, to suspend the inquiry indefinitely led to fierce public backlash. Veteran New York prosecutor and former Special Assistant District Attorney Mark Pomerantz resigned from his post in February over the decision, stating:
"The team that has been investigating Mr. Trump harbors no doubt about whether he committed crimes -- he did...In my view, the public interest warrants the criminal prosecution of Mr. Trump, and such a prosecution should be brought without any further delay."
"It's clear that Bragg is unwilling to hold Trump and his allies accountable for defrauding the U.S. government and will continue to block prosecutors in his office from doing so despite the clear evidence that Trump and his associates committed these crimes," Free Speech For People said in a statement. "This matter must be handled by the New York Attorney General or by another District Attorney in New York State."
"Both in the years leading up to his presidency, and while in office, Donald Trump committed a plethora of crimes -- chief among them defrauding the U.S. government. If Trump and his allies are to be held accountable for the financial crimes they've committed, the criminal inquiry into their fraudulent activity must continue," said Daily Kos communications director Carolyn Fiddler. "Daily Kos urges Gov. Hochul to reassign the suspended criminal investigation into Trump and his associates to the Office of the New York Attorney General or to another district attorney's office in the state."
Governor Hochul has the authority to supersede a district attorney's handling of a case, as established by the New York Court of Appeals.
Free Speech For People is a national non-partisan non-profit organization founded on the day of the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC that works to defend our democracy and our Constitution.
LATEST NEWS
Brazilian Left Welcomes Trial of Bolsonaro for Alleged Coup Attempt
"If Brazil had tried the crimes of the military dictatorship, it certainly wouldn't be trying another coup attempt now," said one leftist lawmaker. "We can't fix the past, but we can write a new story!"
Mar 27, 2025
Brazilian leftists including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva hailed Wednesday's unanimous ruling by a panel of the Federal Supreme Court compelling former far-right President Jair Bolsonaro and seven associates to stand trial for alleged crimes including an attempted coup d'état following his loss to Lula in the 2022 presidential election.
The panel voted 5-0 to accept a complaint filed by the office of Brazilian Attorney General Jorge Messias to indict Bolsonaro, former Brazilian Intelligence Agency Director Alexandre Ramagem, former Navy Commander Almir Garnier, former Justice Minister Anderson Torres, former Institutional Security Bureau Minister Augusto Heleno, former presidential aide Mauro Cid, former Defense Minister Paulo Sérgio Nogueira, and former Defense Minister and presidential Chief of Staff Walter Braga Netto.
Bolsonaro will stand trial for allegedly attempting a coup, involvement in an armed criminal organization, attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law, violent damage of state property, and other charges. A coup conviction carries a sentence of up to 12 years' imprisonment under Brazilian law. However, if convicted on all counts, Bolsonaro and his co-defendants could face decades behind bars.
"It's clear that the former president tried to stage a coup."
The eight defendants are accused of being the "crucial core" of a plan to overturn the results of the 2022 election, which Lula narrowly won in a runoff. Like U.S. President Donald Trump in 2020, Bolsonaro and many of his supporters falsely claimed the contest was "stolen" by the opposition. And like in the U.S., those claims fueled mob attacks on government buildings. Around 1,500 Bolsonaro supporters were arrested in the days following the storming of Congress and the presidential offices.
In February, Prosecutor-General Paulo Gonet indicted Bolsonaro and 33 others for their alleged roles in a plot to overturn the election that included poisoning Lula and also assassinating Vice President Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexadre de Moraes, one of the five judges on the panel that issued Wednesday's ruling.
"It's clear that the former president tried to stage a coup," Lula, who is on a four-day state visit to Japan, said in response to the high court's decision. "It is clear from all the evidence that he tried to contribute to my assassination, assassination of the vice president, assassination of the former president of the Brazilian Electoral Court, and everybody knows what happened."
Lula said that Bolsonaro "knows what he did... and he knows that it was not right," adding that "he should prove his innocence... and he will go free."
"Now, he has no way of proving that he is innocent, since he has no way of proving that he did not attempt the coup," Lula added. "I just hope the justice system will do justice."
The former president is already banned from running for any office until 2030 due to his abuse of power related to baseless claims of electoral fraud.
Bolsonaro and his supporters have been pushing for amnesty, an effort Lula recently said "means he's basically saying, 'Guys, I'm guilty.'"
Erika Hilton, a member of the Chamber of Deputies—the lower house of Brazil's Congress—representing Rio de Janeiro in the Socialism and Liberty Party (PSOL), said Thursday on social media, "NO AMNESTY FOR COUP PLOTTERS!"
"We cannot allow these people to be acquitted," Hilton stressed. "This is because the Bolsonarists in Congress want to pardon them, just as the coup plotters of 1964 were pardoned. And Brazil cannot make that mistake again."
Hilton was referring to the U.S.-backed coup that overthrew the democratically elected leftist government of President João Goulart and installed 21 years of military rule characterized by forced disappearances, torture—sometimes taught by U.S. operatives—and extrajudicial murder of at least hundreds of people.
Former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, who is a member of Lula's Workers' Party (PT), was tortured by the regime. Bolsonaro, an army officer during the dictatorship, has prasied the military regime while taunting its victims and lauding one of its leading torturers as a "national hero."
Other leftist lawmakers and observers invoked the dictatorship in urging the government to deliver justice to Bolsonaro and his alleged accomplices.
"If Brazil had tried the crimes of the military dictatorship, it certainly wouldn't be trying another coup attempt now," argued Helder Salomão, a PT deputy from Espírito Santo. "It's also true that people like Bolsonaro wouldn't go this far. We can't fix the past, but we can write a new story!"
Ricardo Pereira, a professor and journalist, said on social media that "a despicable figure" like Bolsonaro would not have risen to power had Brazil tried dictatorship-era criminals, adding that "we are belatedly cleaning up history, but at least we are doing this."
Addressing reports that Bolsonaro may attempt to flee to Argentina—which is ruled by right-wing President Javier Milei—or the United States, where he applied for a visa amid his mounting legal troubles in 2023, Ivan Valente, a PSOL deputy representing São Paulo, said: "Thinking about escaping? It won't work, fugitive, you'll get jailed!"
A date for Bolsonaro's trial has not yet been set. The chair of the Supreme Court panel is expected to issue a legal framework within days.
"Then, [Moraes] prepares a report and requests a trial date," Eloísa Machado, a law professor at the Fundacão Getulio Vargas University in São Paulo, toldThe Associated Press on Wednesday. "After this stage, prosecutors and defense attorneys will present their final arguments before the court rules on whether to acquit or convict."
Responding to Wednesday's ruling, Bolsonaro told the Supreme Court justices, "If I go to jail, I will give you a lot of work."
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Citing Trump's Push for Ethnic Cleansing, Sanders Says Congress 'Must Act to Block' Arms Sales to Israel
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "has clearly violated U.S. and international law in this brutal war, and we must end our complicity in the carnage," said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Mar 27, 2025
Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont announced Thursday he plans to force votes in the U.S. Senate next week on two joint resolutions of disapproval aimed at blocking proposed arms sales from the United States to Israel, citing U.S. President Trump's recent proposal for the Gaza Strip that human rights officials have called tantamount to ethnic cleansing, and other actions taken by Israel.
Sanders has put forward two joint resolutions of disapproval (JRDs), one aimed at blocking $6.75 billion in munitions and equipment, and a second one for $2.04 billions worth of munitions and related equipment.
The Independent senator—who last fall introduced JRDs to block the sale of U.S. weapons to Israel that ultimately did not pass—argues that Congress "must act to block" the sales in part due to U.S. President Donald Trump's talk of "forcibly displacing millions of people from Gaza."
At a press conference in early February with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Trump said that the United States would "take over" Gaza and "develop it." Trump said that U.S. developers will "level it out" and build the "Riviera of the Middle East" after Palestinians—"all of them"—leave Palestine's coastal enclave.
Last week, Israel's security cabinet approved a proposal to organize "a voluntary transfer for Gaza residents who express interest in moving to third countries, in accordance with Israeli and international law, and following the vision of U.S. President Donald Trump," according to CNN.
In his statement, Sanders said that "there is a name for such a policy—ethnic cleansing—and it's a war crime."
"Netanyahu has clearly violated U.S. and international law in this brutal war, and we must end our complicity in the carnage," Sanders added.
According to researchers with Brown University's the Costs of War Project, the U.S sent at least $17.9 billion in security assistance to Israel between October 2023 and September 2024.
Sanders said that Israel has used U.S.-supplied weapons to kill "a handful of Hamas fighters, and made little effort to distinguish between civilians and combatants," resulting in unnecessary civilian deaths. "These actions are immoral and illegal," he said.
Last week, local health officials in Gaza announced that the death toll of Israel's deadly campaign on the enclave had surpassed 50,000 people. The grim milestone came after a wave of Israeli strikes that followed a two-month period of relative calm while a shaky cease-fire deal was in effect.
Hamas wanted to open talks for the second phase of the deal, that was supposed to see Israel fully withdraw from the enclave and Hamas release remaining living hostages. Israel instead wanted to impose the terms of a new cease-fire presented by the Trump administration, and refused to hold the talks regarding a permanent end to the war.
The senator also cited Israel's decision to halt humanitarian aid from entering into the Gaza Strip in early March. "Blocking humanitarian aid is morally abhorrent and a clear violation of both the Geneva Convention and the Foreign Assistance Act," according to the statement.
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Jewish Groups Denounce Latest 'Cynical' GOP Hearing Equating Criticism of Israel With Antisemitism
"Israel is a nation state, not a Jewish person," said Rabbis for Cease-Fire. "Criticism of Israel's genocidal assault is not equivalent to antisemitism."
Mar 27, 2025
Following the Republican Party's latest hearing on antisemitism on college campuses—part of a campaign in which discrimination against Jewish people has been conflated with calls for Palestinian liberation and opposition to Israel's U.S.-backed killing of tens of thousands of civilians in Gaza—the rights organization Rabbis for Cease-Fire on Thursday said it rejected "the basic premises" of the hearing.
The hearing held by the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee on Thursday, titled "Antisemitic Disruptions on Campus: Ensuring Safe Learning Environments for All Students," was part of an effort to "instrumentalize concern for Jewish safety to shield Israel from accountability," said the group.
The committee scheduled the hearing as supporters of Palestinian rights and the First Amendment have grown increasingly alarmed by the Trump administration's abductions, via Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), of several students who have participated in Palestinian rights protests and spoken out against the U.S. government's support for Israel's assault on Gaza and the West Bank.
But while more than 1,400 academics signed onto an academic boycott of Columbia University over its refusal to stand up to the Trump administration and defend students who have exercised their First Amendment rights, warning that the GOP's agenda and the school's actions "endanger all students, staff, and faculty," Republicans on the committee spoke only about rising antisemitism on college campuses.
Committee Chair Bill Cassidy (R-La.) said that "antisemitic incidents on college campuses were up almost 500% between 2023 and 2024, totaling 1,200 reports."
Cassidy cited the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), which compiles reports on what it views as campus antisemitism, including expressions of hostility toward Jewish people—but also calls for divestment from Israel and the presence of "anti-Zionist groups" who oppose Israel's policies in Palestine.
While the ADL has loudly condemned pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses—some of which have been led by Jewish students—it dismissed outcry over what appeared to be a Nazi salute displayed by far-right billionaire Elon Musk, an ally of President Donald Trump, at an inauguration event in January.
Rabbis for Cease-Fire said Thursday that "repression of political dissent regarding U.S. involvement in the genocidal assault of
Palestinians is not in the best interest of Jews and has nothing to do with Jewish safety."
"To suggest it does actually threatens Jews by taking away civil rights and liberties in our name," said the group.
The group also clarified that by definition, Trump's efforts to rid college campuses of students who speak out against Israel's U.S.-backed military operation is not confronting antisemitism.
"Antisemitism is a bias against or hostility toward Jewish people because they are Jewish, regardless of nationality," said Rabbis for Cease-Fire. "Israel is a nation state, not a Jewish person. Criticism of actions carried out by the state of Israel is a political position and Israel, like every state, must be criticized for illegal and unjust actions, and held to account for war crimes. Criticism of Israel's genocidal assault is not equivalent to antisemitism."
The group added that the vast majority of pro-Palestinian campus protests "were not and are not antisemitic: they are focused on holding Israel and the United States accountable for collaborating on a brutal 18-month assault on Palestinians in Gaza that has claimed over 60,000 lives and destroyed schools, mosques, hospitals, libraries, and tens of thousands of homes."
The hearing was held a day after thousands of Boston-area residents assembled in Somerville, Massachusetts to speak out against ICE's abduction of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Tufts University student and visa holder who was reportedly targeted for writing an op-ed criticizing the school's response to a call for divestment from Israel.
"Jewish people's fear of antisemitism is being exploited to to carry out a broad attack on higher education and free speech," said the rabbis. "This administration's policies are designed by far-right Christian nationalists and are antisemitic themselves. These hearings falsely proclaim that their goal is 'safe learning environments for all students.' In fact, this is actually making learning environments unsafe through universities' draconian rules prohibiting free speech and assembly that result in suspension and expulsion of students, and their use of local police to control and arrest students."
"These hearings are a wholesale attack on higher education as a primary location of the democratic values of the free speech, open dialogue, and political dissent that Trump and the Republicans want to destroy," the group added.
Rabbis for Cease-Fire was joined by other Jewish-led groups in denouncing what Bend the Arc: Jewish Action called "another cynical antisemitism hearing."
"This is Trump's cronies using the guise of caring about Jews to further its agenda of deporting student activists and instilling fear to silence political dissent," said Beth Miller, political director of Jewish Voice for Peace.
Miller credited Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) with using the hearing to condemn Trump's amplification and defense of antisemitism from the far-right, such as in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2017 and his association with Musk.
But the hearing was part of a growing body of evidence that "Trump and his cronies do not care about Jews or Jewish safety," said Miller. "Their attacks on student activists are part of an authoritarian power grab and an attempt to silence the movement for Palestinian rights. We must stand together and fight back against fascism."
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