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As youve probably heard by now, Donald Trump is in a lot of legal trouble, which is unfortunate for him given the fact that legitimate lawyers want nothing to do with him and if it werent for the fact that the Republican Party had already decided to let him get away with inciting a violent insurrection, he almost certainly would have been found guilty at his second impeachment trial. (In fact, one of the attorneys on his dream team suggested the Department of Justice should arrest him if they thought he committed a crime.) Currently, the ex-president is the defendant in approximately 29 lawsuits, according to The Washington Post, though likely more worrisome to him are the criminal investigations hes at the center of, particularly the one being led by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. In the last several months, the D.A. has brought on the attorney who put John Gotti and other white-collar criminals behind bars, has reportedly been working to flip the Trump Organizations longtime CFO, and, most crucially, obtained Trumps much sought-after tax returns, documents that the Queens-born real estate developer has gone to such extreme lengths to keep secret that some people have gotten the impression they contain extremely incriminating information. Now, Vances office has taken the next step in its criminal investigation: finding people who can explain to a jury why Trump is a possible crook.

Reuters reports that investigators are combing through millions of pages of newly acquired records with an eye toward identifying witnesses who can bring the documents to life for a jury, according to people familiar with the matter. Some of the individuals expected to testify are already well known and likely include the 45th presidents former fixer, Michael Cohen, who has met with prosectors eight times. (In February 2019, Cohen told lawmakers that Trump regularly inflated and deflated his assets when it served his purposes, whether it was to reduce his tax bill or obtain loans. Last year, he said in an interview that Trump should go to prison for 360 years.) In addition, theres Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization employee who has described himself as Trumps eyes and ears at the company and would seemingly know if his boss had committed fraud, whether of the bank, insurance, or tax variety. But according to reporters Jason Szep and Peter Eisler, a growing universe of people, institutions, and agencies are being scrutinized by Vances team. Per Reuters:

Prosecutors are looking to gather information and testimony from bankers, bookkeepers, real estate consultants, and others close to the Trump Organization who could provide insights on its dealings, according to interviews and court filings. The process of identifying all witnesses and targets could take months. The next phase is identifying targets for subpoenas and testimony, said one person familiar with the case. Vances investigators need insiders who can provide the narrative behind any conflicting numbers on Trumps financial records and testify to Trumps knowledge and intent, said former prosecutors of white-collar fraud cases. Even in the most heavily document-dependent case, you need witnesses to tell the story, said Reed Brodsky, a longtime white-collar defense lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

Several potential key figures in Vances investigation are current or former employees of outside companiesfrom financial and real estate consultants to legal adviserswith inside knowledge of Trumps dealings, according to court filings and the two people familiar with the investigation. Some performed crucial roles for many years, such as Mazars accountant Donald Bender. His signature is on the tax returns of the Donald J. Trump Foundation, which was dissolved in 2018 after a probe by the New York attorney general found that the organization misused charitable funds. Trump was ordered to pay more than $2 million in damages.

In addition to real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield, which did years of work for the Trump Organization and appraised a property Trump used to obtain a tax easementa tool ProPublica described as a much-abused deduction exploited by wealthy investors that has cost the U.S. Treasury billions of dollarsVance has spoken to and requested records from Ladder Capital Corp. and Deutsche Bank AG, two of the former presidents biggest creditors. (Trump currently owes Deutsche Bank some $340 million and there is no love lost between him and the German lender, which could foreclose on the properties he used to personally guarantee his loans.) But according to Reuters, Vances investigation will likely rely heavily on Trumps closest associatespeople who can address the key question of what Trump was thinking when he made the financial claims now under scrutiny.

Only a core group of Trumps confidantes can address that state-of-mind question, which is critical to proving criminal intent. They include Weisselberg, 73, who began working for Trumps father, Fred, in 1973. Legal experts and a source familiar with the investigation say prosecutors apparent goal is to convince Weisselberg to cooperate. Also under scrutiny are Weisselbergs adult sons - one who has worked for the Trump Organization. The other son worked for Ladder Capital, though theres no evidence he was involved in Ladders loans to Trump.

Jennifer Weisselbergthe former wife of Allens older son, Barry Weisselbergtold Reuters that she has spoken with Vances office five times since November. The day after the first interview, she said, D.A. investigators visited her to retrieve tax and financial records for her and her former husband. She acknowledged that prosecutors have shown interest in an apartment in a Trump-owned building where she and her former husband lived rent-free for seven yearsan arrangement that could have legal implications if it represented compensation not properly reported in tax filings. Jennifer Weisselberg said she believed her father-in-law would never testify against Trump voluntarily. She envisions Allen Weisselberg flipping only if he or his sons are facing prosecution. But no one, she said, knows more about Trumps finances.

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Prosecutors Are Lining Up Witnesses to Explain Donald Trumps Many Alleged Crimes to a Jury - Vanity Fair

In a just world, the day Donald Trump walked out of the White House and boarded a plane headed for Mar-a-Lago would have been the last time we heard from the 45th president or his family ever again. At the very least, it would have been nice for Trump to have been banned from getting within 200 feet of the nuclear codes, on account of both the failed coup and his habit of saying things like this is a tough hurricane, one of the wettest weve ever seen, from the standpoint of water, one of many examples of obvious cognitive impairment. Unfortunately, not only is the guy who (1) sicced a fascist mob on the Capitol and (2) thinks the stock market is a person still eligible to hold office, his entire extended clan is as well. And some are actively threatening to inflict themselves on the U.S. government.

In an interview with Sean Hannity on Tuesday, Lara Trump, Eric Trumps wife and Donald Trumps daughter-in-law, said she is absolutely considering running for Senate in North Carolina. Like her father-in-law when he announced his candidacy for the White House, Lara has no experience whatsoever working in government, though she is skilled in whipping out right-wing talking points the Trump base eats up. In April 2019, she called German chancellor Angela Merkels decision to accept refugees the downfall of Germany and one of the worst things to ever happen to the country that started World War II. In 2020, she hit the campaign trail in support of her husbands father with far-right conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer, who describes herself as a proud Islamophobe. Naturally, she actively took part in the effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. More recently, it was reported that an animal-rescue charity linked to Lara spent nearly $2 million at Donald Trumps properties. (Charitable shadiness is a family affair for the Trumpsin 2019, Donalds charity was forced to shut down and pay $2 million for illegally using the foundations funds, while Eric, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. were required to undergo mandatory training to learn how not to rip off charities moving forward. In a statement at the time, an attorney for the Trump Foundation claimed the group had been trying to to dissolve and distribute its remaining assets since 2016, which is really neither here nor there. A 2017 Forbes report also alleged that Eric Trumps foundation had misappropriated money intended to benefit pediatric cancer. A spokesperson for Eric Trumps foundation insisted the charity had been transparent about where funds were going, and that relevant donors whose money was given to causes...were made aware the funds would be donated elsewhere.)

More recently, Lara was in the news complaining about how social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook suppress the voices of conservatives, hence Donald Trumps need to start his own platform where people can post without fear of the fact-checkers being all over them:

Lara, of course, is not the only Trump mulling a run for office. In addition to her father-in-laws threat to run again in 2024, her sister-in-law, Ivanka, has reportedly had her eyes on the White House since 2016. (In a storyline straight out of a horror film, Trump allies are said to be pushing him to dump Mike Pence if he runs for a second term and pick a woman as his running mate. Like, say, the daughter with whom he has a deeply creepy relationship.)

And speaking of the ex-first daughters political ambitions: over the weekend the Daily Beast suggested that Ivanka has been hard at work attempting to redeem and rebrand herself, given her current reputation as a rioter-praising poster child for nepotism who doesnt let the people guarding her life use the bathroom.

Unfortunately, not everyone thinks a rebrand is possible, for physiological reasons:

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Excerpt from:
Another Trump Is Threatening to Run for Office - Vanity Fair

Former President Donald Trump has said that during his presidency, he cut federal funding to three Central American countries in order to "punish" them. He said he wanted to punish them immigrants kept coming from their countries to seek entry into the United States.

During a Thursday night interview with Fox News host Laura Ingraham, Ingraham played a clip of Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In the clip, Pelosi said that Trump had withdrawn funding from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvadorthree countries that make up a region called the Northern Trianglein order to punish them.

Ingraham asked, "Mr. President, did you withdraw money from Central America to punish them?"

"Absolutely. That's right," Trump replied.

"We were paying them $500 million a year," Trump told Ingraham. "Nobody knew what they were doing with the money, and they were sending criminals to our country."

"They abused us in so many different ways," Trump continued. He then accused the countries' leaders of refusing to accept murderers and members of the violent MS13 gang that had been caught at the southern U.S. border by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection.

"They wouldn't take them. I stopped paying the $500 million that we were wasting when giving it to them," Trump continued.

He then claimed that the day after his administration cut off its funding, the countries' leaders called U.S. officials stating, "We'd love to have MS13 come back into our country. Please send them immediately, and we will not be sending any more bad people."

Ingraham laughed in response.

At the end of March 2019, the Trump Administration announced that it was cutting nearly $450 million in direct funding to the countries because of their failure to stop emigration.

The Northern Triangle is the primary source of migrants to the United States. The immigrants largely flee their region to escape high murder rates, gang violence, low employment as well as a lack of access to food, necessities and social services. Recent droughts and hurricanes have worsened conditions in the region.

The direct funding cut off by Trump had sought to stem migration from the region by helping the countries politically and economically stabilize in an effort to reduce migration caused by violence and corruption.

The program paid millions to dozens of local and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). These organizations conducted development and humanitarian programs on the U.S. government's behalf.

However, because the countries had failed to reduce migration, Trump cut off the funds as a punishment. When the funding ended, many NGOs had to scale back their programs or end them prematurely, closing offices and laying off staff, according to NPR.

Democratic Massachusetts Congressman Jim McGovern, part of a Congressional delegation that visited the Northern Triangle in August 2019 said, "Under questioning, [U.S. embassy staff in the countries] basically conceded that this freeze is a rotten thing to do. Rather than trying to fix the situation, we're making it worse."

In October 2019, Trump's Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that the administration planned on partially restoring the funding. Pompeo said the restoration would occur because the three countries had taken steps to curb emigration.

Newsweek contacted the White House for comment.

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Donald Trump Admits He Withheld Funds to 'Punish' Central America Over Immigration: 'They Abused Us' - Newsweek

Phil Jackson is nearly four years removed from his failed tenure as president of the New York Knicks. It appears he has a long list of people to blame for that failure.

The former Chicago Bulls and Los Angeles Lakers coach opened up about his time at Madison Square Garden in an episode of "The Curious Leader" podcast, hosted by Coby Karl, one of Jackson's former Lakers players and the son of George Karl.

The one-hour, 43-minute podcast touched on a number of topics, with the discussions compiled by Stefan Bondy of the New York Daily News, including the infamous Matt Barnes-Derek Fisher incident ("it was a distraction"), his eventual firing at the hands of James Dolan ("I think he actually did me a favor") and his struggles with the triangle offense ("perhaps the best thing I couldve done was just coach the team myself"). His most eyebrow-raising remark, however, came from his description of how the media treated him.

Specifically, Jackson compared his treatment to that of former President Donald Trump, another man known to have experienced business failures in New York City.

From the New York Daily News:

I kind of understand Trump had to live with probably for his first 3 years in office with the media, Jackson said.

Jackson also reportedly complained of a media contingent that was decidedly against the organization and they were looking for whatever they can do to throw aspersions. Under Jackson, the Knicks' best record was a 32-50 mark in the 2015-16 season. The team still hasn't posted a winning record in the wake of his tenure.

Part of the reason for his Knicks failure, Jackson claimed, was Anthony's lack of leadership:

Carmelo, I think, wanted to be a leader, but I dont think he completely knew how to be a leader as a player, Jackson said. And I think that the strength of his personality was intimidating to some of the coaches that were asked to coach the team. And so there wasnt this compliance that has to happen between players and coaches. And as much I tried to interject my own beliefs, I dont think youre close enough to the ground in that situation to really be effective in dictating how things are going to be done.

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Jackson reportedly added that he wanted to trade Anthony, but complained of Anthony's "lack of compliance" in declining to waive the no-trade clause that Jackson himself gave him at the start of the executive's tenure.

Ultimately, Jackson complained the media took Anthony's side after he stirred more controversy with his "don't change the spot on a leopard" tweet, which was a dig at Anthony's inability to thrive in the triangle offense. He claimed that led to his dismissal, and you will be shocked to hear Jackson thinks the biggest victims of the situation were the Knicks fans:

I think that Jim felt like I was facing too big of an uphill climb and relieved me of the job because he just saw the media was going to be backing Carmelo in this situation, Jackson said. And I was going to be the guy taking the lumps.

It felt like a major disappointment to have to go through that and not being able to turn that thing around because its a heartbeat of New York. Its a big part of what they like their basketball team. There are long devoted Knick fans and I appreciate their desire but I think they get in the way of the team a lot of times.

Another controversy Jackson took issue with was his labeling of LeBron James' business partners as his "posse." James responded to the remark by saying he had lost all respect for the legendary coach. Again, Jackson said he believed it was the media's fault:

There was a lot of distortion that went into it, Jackson said on the podcast. And texting and media was a big part of it But I used that terminology that we used a lot. And it was roundly made a racist remark or whatever it was. That can be thrown into the mix.

This won't be the end of Jackson's comments, as Thursday's episode was just Part 1 of what must have been a lengthy conversation. We'll see what the coach has to say about, say, Kristaps Porzingis and Joakim Noah in the future.

More from Yahoo Sports:

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Phil Jackson unloads on Carmelo Anthony while talking Knicks tenure, compares own treatment to Donald Trump - Yahoo Sports

Before his presidency, Donald Trump was frequently seen flying around the world in his eye-catching Boeing 757. Dubbed Trump Force One following its appearance on the campaign trail in 2016, the jet went largely unused once Trump took office and began flying on government transport instead. So, where is it now?

Before he was allowed to use a converted Boeing 747 under the Air Force One callsign for his trips, Donald Trump used to jet around the world in his own personal Boeing 757. Affectionately dubbed Trump Force One, the aircraft has been sitting idle since Trump took up the US presidency in January 2017.

During his time at the White House, Trump Force One operated a few executive trips for the Trump Organization, but in mid-2019, was placed into long-term storage at Stewart International Airport. Its maintenance was overdue, and Trump didnt think he would need it again for at least another four years.

There were rumors it would come out of mothballs ahead of his departure from the White House in January. However, there was a big problem one engine had been removed. A loan engine was reportedly being sought to enable the jet to fly to Citadel Completions in Louisiana for maintenance. That engine was never found, and Trump flew to Mar-a-Largo on board the VC-25A Air Force One 747.

As of today, the 757 remains stranded in Stewart, north of New York. The almost 30-year-old aircraft is still in need of an engine, a Rolls-Royce RB211, to get it ferried for maintenance. All that costs money, and it doesnt seem to be an investment Trump is keen to make right now.

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For most aircraft owners, storage has become a hot topic in recent months. With airlines keen to keep their grounded jets in good order, desert storage locations have become the location of choice. The warm, dry conditions are ideally suited to keeping aircraft in tip-top shape, and have seen the likes of Victorville, Alice Springs and Teruel in Spain filling up with planes.

New York Stewart International Airport, in Orange County, is not such a super place to keep an aircraft. Although the summer is warm and often dry, the winter can be cold, with temperatures dropping to seven degrees C (44 F) or below. The cold season can bring with it plenty of rain, and sometimes also snow, making for a poor storage environment for aircraft.

With the 757 unable to fly, Trump has been left to fly in his smaller corporate jet. His Cessna 750 Citation X has frequently been spotted flying between Palm Beach and LaGuardia. Seating just eight passengers, its not as luxurious as the 757, and doesnt have his name on the side.

Trumps 757 was once his pride and joy. It featured front and center in his 2016 presidential campaign, with several rallies held at airports with the plane as a backdrop. Its a lavishly appointed VIP space, with cream leather seats, 24-karat gold fixings and a huge master bedroom.

But Trump doesnt have cash to burn, as 2020 has taken its toll on the billionaires worth. According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, his net worth is down to $2.3 billion from $3 billion before his presidency. For now, it seems that Trump is condemned to rely on his somewhat less glamorous Cessna Citation.

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Whats Happening With Donald Trumps Boeing 757? - Simple Flying