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New York Today

The New York Inquiries on Trump and Manafort, Explained

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It’s Thursday. Happy Pi Day! (As in 3.14)

Weather: Great news: It may reach 60 degrees today and tomorrow. Bad news: it may rain tomorrow.

Alternate-side parking: In effect until March 21 (Purim).

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Credit...Doug Mills/The New York Times

Paul Manafort, President Trump’s former campaign manager, was indicted. (Again.)

Mr. Manafort was also sentenced. (Again.)

Two banks that financed Trump projects in New York and elsewhere were subpoenaed.

And that’s just this week, when New York State officials took on a much bigger role in the investigations swirling around the president and his associates.

Confused by the barrage of inquiries — and especially what New York officials are doing?

Let us explain:

Who is investigating in New York?

• Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat and vocal critic of Mr. Trump.

The state’s Department of Financial Services, which is part of Governor Cuomo’s administration. He is a Democrat and successfully campaigned for re-election last year on the theme of battling Mr. Trump.

The Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance, Jr., a Democrat who said Mr. Trump’s policies and oratory undermine security efforts at home and abroad.

What are they looking into?

• Ms. James subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank, which financed Trump projects in New York, Chicago, Washington and Florida.

• Financial Services issued an expansive subpoena to the Trump Organization’s longtime insurance broker, Aon.

What happened to Mr. Manafort?

• Mr. Vance charged Mr. Manafort yesterday with mortgage fraud and more than a dozen other felonies. That’s a state case.

Earlier in the day, in Mr. Manafort’s federal cases, a judge sentenced him to more jail time, for a total of seven and a half years in prison, adding to an order from another judge last week.

What is the role of the federal investigations?

• There is overlap between some of the federal investigations and the recent state ones. One important difference is that as president, Mr. Trump has the authority to pardon someone convicted of federal crimes. Presidents cannot pardon someone convicted of state crimes.

Why is all this happening now?

• The inquiries by Ms. James and Financial Services came after congressional testimony last month from Mr. Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen. Under oath, Mr. Cohen said Mr. Trump inflated the value of his assets in documents provided to Deutsche Bank as part of a bid to buy the Buffalo Bills.

• Mr. Manafort’s state indictment came as a result of an inquiry that Mr. Vance’s office began in 2017. That investigation was postponed because it overlapped with another one by the federal special counsel, Robert S. Mueller III.

What are the politics?

Mr. Cohen’s congressional testimony is fueling the New York investigations. Democrats are facing pressure from their base to do something about Mr. Trump — investigate him, block him, impeach him.

• Here’s what’s interesting: Mr. Trump has been operating in New York — which has no shortage of ambitious regulators — for decades. The inquiries may be new. Mr. Trump’s finances are not.

• Of course, supporters of Mr. Trump will label the New York investigations as nothing more than an escalation of what he has termed a witch hunt. (The inquiry by Ms. James’s office is a civil investigation, not a criminal one. Financial Services is limited to civil regulatory actions, although it can refer possible criminal conduct to a local district attorney or the state attorney general.)

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Francesco Cali was fatally shot outside his home on Staten Island on Wednesday night.Credit...Italian Police Press Office/EPA, via Shutterstock

Mr. Cali, 53, was shot six times last night outside his home, an official said.

A neighbor said he heard a burst of gunshots shortly after 9 p.m.

The Gambino family was once the nation’s largest and most influential organized crime group, but several of its leaders were convicted in the 1990s of crimes that included murder and racketeering.

[Read the full story]

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Credit...Jeenah Moon for The New York Times

A man bought a $238 million penthouse on Central Park South, and it may lead to the nation’s first tax on superluxury second homes.

Birthday billboard for Dad: It had a phone number on it, and 20,000 strangers called with wishes.

It could save their lives. So why don’t detectives always wear a bulletproof vest?

A former New Jersey priest accused of sexual abuse was found shot to death in his Nevada home.

Old rape kits finally got tested, and 64 attackers were convicted.

[Want more news from New York and around the region? Check out our full coverage.]

The mini crossword: Here is today’s puzzle.

The Chrysler Building may become a hotel, a new owner says. [Bloomberg]

A lamb was rescued after it went running on the Gowanus Expressway. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

Thousands of city students are anxiously waiting to find out if they were accepted into the public high schools they applied to. [WNYC]

A chocolate festival is coming to Queens College on March 24. [QNS]

Tomorrow is National Egg Cream Day. But the Museum at Eldridge Street is getting a day’s head start in celebrating with a workshop and contest to celebrate the classic Lower East Side drink. 6 p.m. [$10]

Make your way to the Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning in Queens for a night of jazz. 8 p.m. [$10]

The Museum of the City of New York will have a discussion on the film “El Pueblo Se Levanta” with Juan González, a founding member of the Young Lords, and Bev Grant, one of the film’s creators. 6:30 p.m. [$15]

— Derek Norman

Events are subject to change, so double-check before heading out. For more events, see the going-out guides from The Times’s culture pages.

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Credit...Sebastian ErraZuriz Studio

“Blue Marble” is the title of one of the first photos of our planet, taken from outer space in 1972.

“It was the first-ever image we had of ourselves as a single unit,” said Sebastian ErraZuriz, a designer, artist and tech entrepreneur.

It carried a profound message, he said: “Our destinies are fully tied; our differences are insignificant.”

Now, Mr. ErraZuriz is bringing his version of that image to New York.

He and his team are projecting live images of Planet Earth, taken from a NASA satellite, onto a giant outdoor LED screen at 159 Ludlow Street in Manhattan.

The presentation is called “blu Marble” and runs until April 13.

“There’s something really weirdly beautiful in realizing that we’re all together on that little rock,” ErraZuriz said in an interview. He jokingly compared the live-streamed images of Earth to a giant map.

“It may be the most macro ‘You are here now’ one could possibly do,” he said.

It’s Thursday — where are you?

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Dear Diary:

We went to see Elton John at Madison Square Garden. Not an empty seat in the place, and he still rocks the house. The music covered us like a favorite old sweater.

There was one big difference between the show at the Garden and the concerts of our youth. Instead of the smell of pot, there was a pronounced odor of Vicks in the air.

— Jack Hartog

New York Today is published weekdays around 6 a.m. Sign up here to get it by email. You can also find it at nytoday.com.

We’re experimenting with the format of New York Today. What would you like to see more (or less) of? Post a comment or email us: nytoday@nytimes.com.

A correction was made on 
March 14, 2019

An earlier version of this article misstated the location of a $238 million penthouse. It is Central Park South, not Central Park West.

How we handle corrections

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