Since Donald Trump and his family stepped onto the national political stage, an aura of criminality has hung around them. Why? It's hard to say. Maybe it's because of most Americans' well-earned distrust of the super rich. Or maybe it's because our partisan politics have made us suspicious of the opposition. Or maybe it's because of the whole "constantly being under investigation from crimes" thing. You know, now that I hear it out loud, that last one rings true to me.

And if you needed more evidence that there's a certain illegality to the Trump family, well then do I have a giant, though not at all shocking, exposé for you. The New Yorker, ProPublica, and WNYC teamed up for an investigation that has revealed that in 2012, Ivanka "Complicit" Trump and Donald "Idiot Boy" Trump Jr. were nearly indicted on felony fraud charges.

So what did they do? I'm so glad you asked. They were apparently lying to prospective condo buyers at Trump Soho, because they were struggling to move units in the building. And we're not talking about an incidental fib, we're talking coordinated lying. And how did prosecutors (and these reporters) know that they were coordinating the fraud? Because, and tell me if this sounds familiar, they talked about it openly in emails.

In one email, according to four people who have seen it, the Trumps discussed how to coordinate false information they had given to prospective buyers. In another, according to a person who read the emails, they worried that a reporter might be onto them. In yet another, Donald Jr. spoke reassuringly to a broker who was concerned about the false statements, saying that nobody would ever find out, because only people on the email chain or in the Trump Organization knew about the deception, according to a person who saw the email.

I don't know what's crazier to me. That Don Jr. thought nobody would find out because only people on that email chain or in his organization knew, or that despite having this case blow up in his face years ago, he was still willing to set up a meeting with a Russian lawyer promising damaging information from the kremlin in an email. Either way, the point is, Don Jr. isn't exactly an intellectual.

But let's get back to this 2012 case. It sounds like the prosecutors had Ivanka and Don Jr. in their sights, but then nothing happened. What gives? Well, the more helpful question would be, "who gives?" Because suddenly the DA, Cyrus Vance Jr, got a visit from Marc Kasowitz, Donald Trump, Sr.'s personal attorney. Kasowitz had donated $25,000 to Vance's campaign during the previous election and was one of his top donors. And though Vance had given back that donation when the case against Ivanka and Don Jr. had been taken up, Vance decided to shut down the investigation after that meeting. And six months later, Kasowitz helped raise and eventually donate more than $50,000 to Vance's next campaign. Now, for their parts, Vance and Kasowitz both deny this was a quid pro quo situation, and Vance has said he plans to give the money back all these years later. But it's interesting how there was a likely felony fraud indictment coming, and then one meeting later that case was dropped. Did I say "interesting"? I meant suspicious.

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