Is the Manhattan DA Prepping Prosecution Against Trump? Because Money Laundering Is Not an Official Act.

Images from Eduardo Munoz, Jonathan Ernst/Reuters

Capital One notified Trump-affiliated entities on March 8, 2021 that their accounts would be closed by that June, and roughly 385 accounts tied to the Trump Organization and Eric Trump were shut down by mid-2021, after more than a decade at the bank. The closed accounts included a winery, a bottled-water company, and a golf course developer. The Trump entities sued in 2025, alleging politically motivated debanking, and in July 2026 Capital One told the court the closures followed months of analysis and a careful review by its anti-money-laundering team, a unit the bank describes as carrying decades of law enforcement experience.

The bank explained itself only after the plaintiffs added a claim in July that Capital One had defrauded them by staying silent about its reasoning. The explanation was compelled.

We would likely not even know that these Trump entities were debanked over concerns serious enough to make a bank walk away from massive amounts of money belonging to a client who happens to be the President.

Money laundering in New York is a felony under Article 470 of the Penal Law. The state has to prove the money came from criminal activity, that the defendant knew it, and that the money was moved to hide where it came from.

You may now be asking if Manhattan has jurisdiction, considering Capital One is headquartered in Virginia and the lawsuit that released the information occurred in Florida. New York Criminal Procedure Law 20.40 permits conviction in a county when conduct sufficient to establish an element of the offense occurred there. Additionally, the District Attorney can still charge someone if the conduct was knowingly expected to impact activities in Manhattan. The Trump Organization runs its finances out of a building on Fifth Avenue, which is why a Manhattan jury heard the 2022 Trump tax fraud case and why this is the most appropriate venue for prosecution.

So what about the SCOTUS decision on “Presidential Immunity”? Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. 593 (2024), confers absolute immunity for core constitutional functions and presumptive immunity for other official acts. Unofficial conduct receives no immunity. Private commercial banking activity conducted in and before 2021 is unofficial by truly any reasonable reading.

The other immunity claim comes from two memorandums the Department of Justice Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) wrote for the Department of Justice. They claim a sitting president cannot be prosecuted for any offense, on the reasoning that charging him would undermine the executive branch’s capacity to do its constitutional work. In plain English, that a President must be above the law to execute their lawful duties. No court has ever adopted it. Internal policy memos are not legally binding on a state prosecutor.

For money laundering to be money laundering, the money has to be the result of unlawful activity, which Capital One’s anti-money-laundering team reviewed for months before the bank decided the risk outweighed the revenue from 385 accounts.

The records Capital One relied on can be subpoenaed by the Manhattan District Attorney. The Supreme Court settled that in Trump v. Vance, 591 U.S. 786 (2020), in a case this same office brought and won, seeking these same kinds of records.

Here is some context related to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

In December 2024, Bragg filed a memorandum of law in People v. Trump opposing dismissal of the thirty-four felony convictions. Bragg’s filing told the court that even after inauguration, the defendant’s temporary immunity as the sitting President would not justify discarding the verdict, and that there was no legal barrier to deferring sentencing until his term of office concludes. He said because this man may be president, out of respect for the office, we must not prosecute his criminal behavior even when it is proven in a court of law. Justice Juan Merchan rejected the immunity argument on January 3, 2025 and set sentencing for a week later. The Supreme Court declined to block it five to four, and on January 10, 2025 Merchan imposed sentence on all thirty-four counts. The sentence was an unconditional discharge. Trump was found guilty on every count and given no penalty.

Merchan’s decision invites the conclusion that prosecuting this defendant is pointless, and that may be part of why other prosecutors have stepped back. It should not be. Here are several reasons to proceed anyway. First, the people around him can be prosecuted, which disincentivizes collaborators. Second, not every judge would do what Merchan did. Third, bringing the case is within a district attorney’s power whatever the sentence turns out to be, and each one contests the claim that a president is above the law, which most Americans reject. Fourth, new information of criminal conduct may be discovered, and the public has a right to that information.

We should also be clear that Bragg may already be investigating quietly. Grand jury work is secret, and a sealed investigation is the normal state of affairs.

He may be waiting until Trump leaves office. That is a charitable read, and it’s supported by his December 2024 filing, since he told the court there was no barrier to deferring until the term ends. You can hold that against him or credit him for it, but the filing is evidence of the strategy either way.

So what can we do about it?

Call To Action

If you live in Manhattan, call the District Attorney’s office at 212-335-9000, or write to Alvin Bragg at One Hogan Place, New York, NY 10013. Tell them who you are, why you care, and what you want their resources directed toward.

If you live anywhere in New York State, call Attorney General Letitia James at 1-800-771-7755, use the contact form at https://ag.ny.gov/contact-attorney-general-letitia-james, or write to the Office of the New York Attorney General, The Capitol, Albany NY 12224-0341, and say the same things.

If you live somewhere else, find your governor through the National Governors Association directory at https://www.nga.org/governors/ and tell them you want state resources dedicated to a task force investigating potential criminal, and therefore unprotected, conduct by federal officials, and prosecuting based on what it finds.

But just so you know, it’s 10 people like yourself, 10 activists per article who subscribe by clicking the button below, that fund all of this. All 3 free books, all 12 booklets, the model legislation, and the 20–40 articles per month.

Don’t let this be the reason you miss a meal or are late on rent.

But if this helps you and you can become a subscriber, you’re one of the 10 that makes it all possible.

Buy The ER Some Coffee