Prosecutor Compares Donald Trump To John Gotti In New Book

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A new book by a former Manhattan prosecutor compares Donald Trump to the late mob boss John Gotti — and blames embattled District Attorney Alvin Bragg for botching a probe of the ex-president.

In “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” veteran prosecutor and defense attorney Mark Pomerantz allege that the 76-year-old real-estate mogul got rich “through a pattern of criminal activity,” according to The New York Times, which obtained an advance copy.

“He demanded absolute loyalty and would go after anyone who crossed him. He seemed always to stay one step ahead of the law,” Pomerantz wrote.

“In my career as a lawyer, I had encountered only one other person who touched all of these bases: John Gotti, the head of the Gambino organized crime family.”

Pomerantz also said he and other Manhattan prosecutors compiled a mountain of evidence against Trump for allegedly inflating the value of his properties to obtain loans fraudulently.

A bank employee who helped finance Trump’s business allegedly provided some of the information.

But the investigation “turned into a legal equivalent of a plane crash,” with Pomerantz — who last year quit the DA’s Office over Bragg’s handling of the case — citing “pilot error” as the cause.

Pomerantz said Bragg stubbornly refused to use testimony from Trump’s disgraced former personal lawyer, ex-con Michael Cohen, pointing to a February 2022 meeting at which Bragg made his opposition to the idea crystal clear.

Bragg said he “‘could not see a world’ in which we would indict Trump and call Michael Cohen as a prosecution witness,” Pomerantz wrote.

Pomerantz, a former Manhattan federal prosecutor, was recruited in May 2021 by then-Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr. to work exclusively on an investigation of Trump.

Pomerantz said that the probe was “floundering” at the time and that he decided to focus on allegations that Trump paid hush money during his 2016 campaign to former porn star Stormy Daniels and ex-Playboy Playmate Karen McDougal to cover up affairs with them.

Trump’s announced his intent to regain the White House in 2024 has denied cheating with — or paying off — either woman.

Pomerantz eventually decided that New York law made pursuing the case too risky but that the state’s anti-racketeering law, called “enterprise corruption,” “was an ideal vehicle for prosecuting Donald Trump and the Trump Organization,” he wrote.

Although Vance called it a “bold” idea, other prosecutors seemed unenthusiastic, and the plan was dropped around Labor Day 2021, shortly before Vance left office.

After Bragg succeeded him last year, Pomerantz told the new DA that there was about a 70% chance they could win a fraud conviction over the valuation of Trump’s properties, which state Attorney General Letitia James was also investigating.

“The information we received from the attorney general’s office would become hugely important,” he wrote.

After Bragg decided not to seek an indictment, both Pomerantz and Carey Dunne, another senior prosecutor overseeing the Trump case, quit in protest.

In his book, Pomerantz, 71, also copied a stern email in which he scolded Bragg, 49.

“Neither Carey nor I are rash, immature, starry-eyed young lawyers,” Pomerantz wrote. “You need to respect our judgment, decades of experience as prosecutors and defense lawyers, and the work we have put into the case.”

Last week, Trump lawyer Joe Tacopina threatened to sue Pomerantz if his book gets released as planned on Tuesday, saying, “My office will aggressively pursue all legal remedies against you and your book publisher, Simon & Schuster.”

On Friday, Tacopina told the Times that “injecting the name John Gotti into this seems like just another desperate attempt by Pomerantz to sell books.”

Bragg — who’s faced harsh criticism over his soft-on-crime, progressive policies — also shot Pomerantz over his “pilot error” crack, telling the Times, “Mr. Pomerantz’s plane wasn’t ready for takeoff.”

“After closely reviewing all the evidence from Mr. Pomerantz’s investigation, I came to the same conclusion as several senior prosecutors involved in the case, and also those I brought on: More work was needed,” Bragg said.

“Our skilled and professional legal team continues to follow the facts of this case wherever they may lead, without fear or favor. Mr. Pomerantz decided to quit a year ago and sign a book deal. I haven’t read the book and won’t comment on any ongoing investigation because of the harm it could cause to the case.”

n September, James filed a $250 million civil fraud suit against Trump for allegedly inflating the value of his properties, which led to a deposition in which the former president invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times to avoid incriminating himself.

That case is set for trial in October.

In November, it was revealed that Bragg had reopened the hush-money probe involving Daniels.

And on Monday, a potential key witness, former National Enquirer publisher David Pecker, was spotted entering the Lower Manhattan building where prosecutors began presenting evidence to a grand jury, sources said at the time.

Trump called those developments “a continuation of the Greatest Witch Hunt of all time.”