Top prosecutors resigned in Trump case after DA signalled Trump wouldn’t be indicted

Probe is just one of several legal risks to the former president

The two prosecutors who recently resigned from a New York probe into Donald Trump’s finances did so because the district attorney in the case said he was not prepared to authorise an indictment, it has been reported.

According to a source cited by CNN, attorneys Carey Dunne and Mark Pomerantz failed to convince Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg that the evidence gathered in their probe is strong enough to support charges against the former president.

The two men resigned last month after Mr Bragg decided to stop giving evidence to the grand jury impanelled for the investigation, giving Mr Trump a rare piece of good news at a time when the various legal threats to him and his family are intensifying.

The Manhattan investigation – not to be confused with the state-level probe being led by New York Attorney General Letitia James – is focused on allegations that the Trump Organization deliberately misled lenders and insurers as to the value of its various assets, a pattern of over- and under-valuation that allegedly allowed it to obtain inordinately favourable loan terms while also minimising its tax burden.

As CNN reports, the investigation has run into trouble as its staff increasingly disagree on whether they have strong enough grounds for a Trump indictment, a judgment that rests in large part on whether or not they can prove Mr Trump specifically intended to commit the crimes of which they accuse him.

The probe has been stymied in large part by the failure to get any senior associates of the former president to turn against him and provide the kind of evidence that would speak more directly to his personal involvement, if any, in a conspiracy to commit fraud.

According to Mr Bragg’s office, the probe remains ongoing.

Among the other legal cases involving Mr Trump are a defamation case brought by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who claims the former president raped her in the 1990s; an investigation in Georgia as to whether Mr Trump committed an offence by pressuring state officials to “find” enough votes to overturn Joe Biden’s 2020 victory; and the 6 January select committee’s congressional investigation, which last week saw the panel recommend criminal charges against the ex-president and several other people.