Former President Donald Trump has endured several high-profile investigations that have mostly proven fruitless — and Eric Trump thinks there may be a critical reason why his father’s disparagers keep trying anyway.
The former president’s son, who is also a trustee and executive vice president for the Trump Organization, charged that the latest probe into the company’s business dealings is nothing more than an “abuse of power and a political vendetta” meant to keep his father from running for president again in 2024.
Manhattan’s Democratic District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. launched the years-long investigation with New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a fellow Democrat who campaigned on the promise of prosecuting Donald Trump, joining forces against him.
After spending hundreds of man-hours and millions of taxpayer dollars to unearth anything criminal, all they have to show are charges against CFO Allen H. Weisselberg for some unpaid taxes on fringe benefits.
This fact has left Eric Trump to conclude prosecutors’ motives were purely political.
“It is an absolute abuse of power and a political vendetta,” the younger Trump, 37, told the U.K.’s Daily Mail shortly before Weisselberg pleaded not guilty to charges of tax evasion.
“They are petrified my father will run again in 2024,” Eric Trump said, speculating on the motive for such a fishing expedition that yielded precious little.
“After five years, hundreds of subpoenas, three and a half million pages of documents, and dozens of witnesses, this is what they have?”
Weisselberg is a 48-year veteran of the company and is accused of failing to pay taxes on fringe benefits such as his company car, a city apartment and school fees for his grandchildren the company paid that may be taxable — hardly the stuff of criminal masterminds.
He has pleaded not guilty to the 15 charges against him, and his attorneys have promised he will “fight these charges in court.”
“Any taxpayer should be infuriated by this political witch hunt especially as young girls are getting shot in the middle of Times Square and as people are fleeing New York state in record numbers,” Eric Trump said, recalling the tragic shooting of a 4-year-old girl in Times Square on Mother’s Day weekend.
“These people are cruel and these actions will expose them for who they truly are,” he said.
Eric Trump was vindicated as many supported his assertions. “Top comments on the Daily Mail which really say it all,” he tweeted Wednesday with screenshots of the Daily Mail’s comment section. “People have seen this movie before.”
One comment said it was a “swing and a miss” from the Democrats while another called the charges “absolutely pathetic.” Still another likened it to not paying taxes on a “refrigerator full of free bottled water” provided at work.
Top comments on the Daily Mail which really say it all. People have seen this movie before: pic.twitter.com/WnvlIl4zyl
— Eric Trump (@EricTrump) June 30, 2021
Legal experts also told the publication that these charges are highly unusual and some close to the situation speculated this is an attempt to “flip” Weisselberg against the former president.
But Weisselberg has been with the organization since Donald Trump’s father, Fred Trump, was actively involved in the company and surely would remain loyal to the family.
In fact, the Daily Mail reported, Donald Trump left the company in the hands of Weisselberg and his two eldest sons when he stepped down to become president.
It’s more likely that Eric Trump hit on something bigger when he connected the investigation to efforts to cut his father off from running in 2024.
After all, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rushed through Donald Trump’s second impeachment ostensibly as punishment for the Jan. 6 incursion into the U.S. Capitol.
However, she rushed through the proceedings despite the then-president’s term ending just days later, making it clear the impeachment wasn’t so much about removing him from office as it was in hopes of preventing Donald Trump from returning to the ballot in the 2024 presidential election.
And while he has not definitively announced his 2024 run, Donald Trump has certainly teased it as a possibility — a fact that sends leftists back into the throes of Trump Derangement Syndrome all over again.
The former president has also returned to holding his signature political rallies and remains wildly popular among his base, drawing thousands to Sarasota, Florida, over Independence Day weekend.
Former President Donald Trump thanks the large crowd in Sarasota, Fl. – “wow, that’s a lot of people.” pic.twitter.com/BxT4J0unn9
— Newsmax (@newsmax) July 4, 2021
Whatever the excuse for these continued investigations — beginning with the Russia collusion hoax during the 2016 election and continuing through the Ukraine quid pro quo nonsense — the outcome is usually the same.
Sure, this time they have succeeded in handcuffing a senior citizen for a relatively minor infraction, but they can’t seem to nail the former president with anything substantial.
It seems the only thing they’ve ever proven through their subpoenas, indictments, investigations and impeachments is that Donald Trump is the cleanest, most honest businessman in the history of New York — otherwise, he would have been behind bars by now.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.