Trump threatens to sue ex-Manhattan prosecutor Mark Pomerantz over tell-all book
Former President Donald Trump has accused a onetime Manhattan prosecutor of defaming him in an upcoming book chronicling the Manhattan district attorney’s probe into the 45th president.
In a Monday letter to Mark Pomerantz, Trump attorney Joe Tacopina warned that if Pomerantz goes ahead with the publication of “People v. Donald Trump: An Inside Account,” “my office will aggressively pursue all legal remedies against you and your book publisher, Simon & Schuster.”
Tacopina went on to accuse Pomerantz of falsely stating that Trump, 76, was “guilty of numerous felony violations” and that it was a “grave failure of justice not to hold [Trump] accountable by way of criminal prosecution.”
“Under the circumstances, couching your opinion as a belief by no means insulates you from liability,” Tacopina wrote.
Pomerantz was hired in 2021 by then-Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance to assist the office’s investigation into Trump, the Trump Organization and its leadership — a probe that Vance launched in 2018. Pomerantz abruptly quit in February 2022 — along with another lead prosecutor, Carey Dunne — over disagreements with new DA Alvin Bragg on how to proceed with the investigation.
In an excerpt from the introduction to the book, Pomerantz writes that the investigation “developed evidence convincing us that Donald Trump had committed serious crimes.”
“As we put the facts together, many of us came to believe that we had enough evidence to convict him, and we could present a solid case in court that would lead to a guilty verdict,” Pomerantz continued. “The district attorney agreed and authorized the prosecution. But … the new regime decided that Donald Trump should not be prosecuted and the investigation faltered. What happened?”
Last week, Bragg warned Simon & Schuster that the book could prejudice his ongoing criminal investigation into Trump, a fact Tacopina pointed out in his own letter.
“[I]t is abundantly clear that, despite the fact the District Attorney’s Office has seen fit not to pursue criminal charges against my clients, you have deliberately undermined that stance for financial gain,” the Trump lawyer wrote. “In fact, Simon & Schuster characterizes your book as an ‘inside account of the attempt to prosecute former President Donald Trump,’ meaning you wrote it, in violation of your ethical duties, with secret, non-public information that could have only been garnered in your position as a Special Assistant.”
“Whatever legacy you intended has been disgraced and destroyed,” Tacopina concluded. “That said, while your reputation is beyond repair, there is still hope that you may salvage your financial well-being by heeding the contents of this letter.”
“We stand behind Mark Pomerantz and his book, People vs. Donald Trump, and look forward to sharing this important and timely work with readers when it is published on February 7,” said a spokesperson for Simon & Schuster in response to Trump’s and Bragg’s warning.