Ex-President Donald Trump made quite the show of making like a bird and flying south on the heels of his brutal election loss, leaving D.C. for his Mar-a-Lago golf club/resort/new home down in the Republican-loving state of Florida — where his biggest worry was Ron DeSantis running against him.
But, according to a recent report from the Daily Beast, the prospect of FL Governor DeSantis beating him out in an election may soon be the least of his worries, as their analysis claims that Donald’s official change of residency from Manhattan, NY, to his Palm Beach, FL, resort may have actually handed New York prosecutors a massive gift in the form of extra time to steamroll forward with their various investigations into the ex-president’s shady business dealings.
Prosecutors in New York have been in a head to head race with time, as the former guy continually tries to run out the clock on the investigations against him through ridiculous legal challenges and maneuvers because typically speaking, investigators and prosecutors in the state of New York only have 5 years to bring up charges against someone after they’ve opened an investigation. But the Beast says one obscure law may have bought prosecutors and investigators nearly double that time.
The report reads, “Law enforcement in New York has five years from the date of an alleged crime to officially file charges for most felonies, but under New York law § 30.10(4)(a)(i), that clock stops for up to five more years when a defendant is outside the state,” adding, “That 10-year grace period means Trump’s time in the White House and his post-presidential political exile at the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida may be gifting prosecutors much-needed extra time.”
Stay up-to-date with the latest news!
Subscribe and start recieving our daily emails.
According to the Beast, prosecutors are neck-deep into “poring over thousands of spreadsheets and financial records from the Trump Organization and slowly building a case against Trump for allegedly inflating property values, lying on business forms, dodging taxes, duping banks,” before going on to note that inside sources have hinted at a “team of Manhattan assistant district attorneys has considered the use of the state’s clock-stopping measure in the Trump investigation.”
We can’t get our hopes up too high yet, though, as former Manhattan prosecutor Adam Kaufmann said he can’t recall a single case in which the law was actually applied.
“You don’t often have white-collar cases that are so… old. It just doesn’t happen that much that you’re trying to get something from more than five years ago,” Kaufmann explained before adding, “It’s easy to prove he was not in the state of New York. There’s going to be records of where he was physically located every day for four years.”
However, it seems that, even with the less-than-common use of the obscure law, many of Trump’s closest aides were left with their nerves in knots upon finding out about the law which may make it nearly impossible for the former president to run out the clock on this.
“How is that legal?” they reportedly questioned.
You can read the full report from the Daily Beast here.
Featured image via U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. Darrell Hamm
