Multiple sources told New York Times correspondent and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman that prosecutors are pursuing information that could lead to wire fraud charges on top of everything else ex-President Donald Trump faces.

Haberman — an influential analyst to whom Trump pays a lot of attention — has a network of Trumpworld sources, as well as contacts she has developed over years of reporting on Trump in New York.

On Friday, she and colleagues Alan Feuer and Jonathan Swan published an article entitled “Prosecutors in Jan. 6 Case Step up Inquiry Into Trump Fund-Raising” that details a new line of inquiry for the investigation that could open yet another can of worms for Trump:

As they investigate former President Donald J. Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election, federal prosecutors have also been drilling down on whether Mr. Trump and a range of political aides knew that he had lost the race but still raised money off claims that they were fighting widespread fraud in the vote results, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Led by the special counsel Jack Smith, prosecutors are trying to determine whether Mr. Trump and his aides violated federal wire fraud statutes as they raised as much as $250 million through a political action committee by saying they needed the money to fight to reverse election fraud even though they had been told repeatedly that there was no evidence to back up those fraud claims.

The prosecutors are looking at the inner workings of the committee, Save America PAC, and at the Trump campaign’s efforts to prove its baseless case that Mr. Trump had been cheated out of victory.

Haberman flagged one particular portion by quoting it on Twitter: “All three areas overlap, and could inform prosecutors’ thinking about whether to proceed with charges in an investigation in which witnesses are still being interviewed.”

That quote from the plugged-in Haberman carries a suggestion that won’t likely be of comfort to Trump.

Trump faces a raft of other investigations and potential indictments and charges — the Special Counsel Jack Smith-led Justice Department probes into Trump’s mishandling of classified information under the Espionage Act and his conduct surrounding the January 6 insurrection, as well as Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ grand jury investigation of his effort to overturn election results in Georgia and New York Attorney General Letitia James’s civil case against Trump and his company, and  his arrest and arraignment in a Manhattan courtroom over an indictment on 34 felony counts for crimes involving hush money payments to adult entertainment entrepreneur Stormy Daniels and others and the E. Jean Carroll rape lawsuit that went to trial this week.

The post Maggie Haberman Sources Say Trump Prosecutors Are Digging Into Wire Fraud Charges On Top Of Everything Else first appeared on Mediaite.

from Mediaite https://ift.tt/CMLnAc4