Why an NDA may derail a former Manhattan DA special assistant’s new tell-all Trump book: report

26 January 2023

When Mark Pomerantz was working as a special assistant to the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, he vehemently disagreed with DA Alvin Bragg, Jr.’s decision to prevent a prosecution of former President Donald Trump. The Manhattan DA’s Office has been investigating Trump and his company the Trump Organization, whose long-time CFO Allen Weisselberg has been sentenced to jail after pleading guilty to financial crimes. But Bragg has forbidden an indictment of Trump himself.

Pomerantz had a nondisclosure agreement (NDA) with the Manhattan DA’s Office, and according to Daily Beast reporter Jose Pagliery, that NDA may prevent the release of the former special assistant’s forthcoming book, “People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account.”

Pagliery, in an article published on January 26, explains, “The NDA, obtained exclusively by The Daily Beast, warns that ‘any work performed for the office’ is ‘privileged and confidential.’ That clause appears to directly conflict with a memoir that promises juicy details in what has so far been a failed effort to indict Trump. ‘People vs. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,’ written by former special assistant DA Mark Pomerantz, is due to hit bookshelves on February 7 — and it’s being billed as a ‘fascinating inside account of the attempt to prosecute former President Donald Trump.’”

Pomerantz, Pagliery notes, “quit in protest” because he disagreed with Bragg’s decision to “hit the brakes on any indictment against Trump himself.” However, Bragg hasn’t ruled out the possibility of changing his mind about that order.

“Bragg, who just scored tax fraud convictions against two Trump companies and former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, recently hinted at a decision to revive the effort to prosecute Trump directly,” Pagliery explains. “But that brief victory lap was interrupted with the news that Pomerantz decided to publish this book. Bragg is now bracing for what could be an embarrassing episode for the office. If the 304-page book delivers on its core selling point, it will describe why Bragg — who inherited the Trump investigation from his predecessor, Cy Vance Jr. — didn’t pull the trigger.”

The Daily Beast reporter continues, “Pomerantz’s book is expected to detail how a team of Manhattan assistant district attorneys gathered evidence for three years to build a criminal case that Trump defrauded banks and insurers, lied on official financial forms by inflating the value of his real estate properties, dodged corporate taxes by showering his executives, and ignored campaign laws by paying hush money to keep porn star Stormy Daniels quiet about their sexual affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election.”

Pagliery describes the NDA that Pomerantz signed in December 2020 as “severe.”

“The three-page contract states that ‘counsel agrees not to disclose to anyone, without the office’s written permission’ the existence of the Trump grand jury investigation, any aspect of that probe, and the mere fact that he signed a nondisclosure agreement,” according to Pagliery. “The strict limitations seemed tailored to his role as an outside adviser, not a full investigator who could question witnesses and reveal that a grand jury was then underway. The contract also cautions that any damning information gathered by investigators inherently came from grand jury subpoenas, and thus, ‘improper disclosure of such material by certain individuals is punishable as a felony.’”

Read the Daily Beast’s full article at this link.

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