President Donald Trump's children Donald Jr. and Ivanka were the targets of a criminal probe in 2012 for making misleading statements about the Trump SoHo project, WNYC reported.
In short, emails show the Trump children were intentionally using inflated and false figures about the pace of sales of the condos in an effort to lure more buyers.
Prosecutors had the Trump children in their crosshairs for felony fraud, but at Trump Sr.'s behest, personal lawyer Marc Kasowitz got involved and ultimately swayed Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. into dropping the case, WNYC reported.
Vance overruled his own prosecutors from his Major Economic Crimes Bureau.
Making matters shady, Kasowitz earlier in 2012 donated $25,000 to Vance's election campaign before the meeting to discuss the case — which Vance returned — and then six months later donated and helped raise more than $50,000 to the DA's campaign, WNYC reported.
Vance says he intends to return those contributions as well.
"I don't want the money to be a millstone around anybody's neck, including the office's," he told WNYC.
Vance said that despite the damning emails, he didn't think a crime had been committed.
"I did not at the time believe beyond a reasonable doubt that a crime had been committed," he told WNYC. "I had to make a call and I made the call, and I think I made the right call."
Even lawyers for the Trump children conceded Trump Jr. and Ivanka exaggerated, but argued that it didn't amount to criminal conduct, WNYC reported.
Ultimately, Vance agreed.
"Dropping the case was reasonable," Paul Grand, who was part of the Trump SoHo defense team, told WNYC. "The manner in which it was accomplished is curious," saying that the meeting between Kasowitz and Vance "didn't have an air you'd like."
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