New York AG Acts To Compel Trumps To Testify In Financial Fraud Case
New York Attorney General Letitia James took legal action Tuesday night against former President Donald Trump and two of his children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, to compel them to testify in a civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s financial dealings.
James filed a motion to compel with the Supreme Court of the State of New York, seeking a court order to enforce the subpoenas and her office’s demands for documents from Donald Trump Jr.
“For more than two years, the Trump Organization has used delay tactics and litigation in an attempt to thwart a legitimate investigation into its financial dealings,” James said in a statement. “Thus far in our investigation, we have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit.”
Those misrepresentations, James said, may have been used to secure loans, insurance coverage or tax deductions for buildings in New York City and golf courses in New York and Scotland, among other holdings.
We are taking legal action to force Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump to comply with our investigation into the Trump Organization’s financial dealings.
No one in this country can pick and choose if and how the law applies to them.— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) January 19, 2022
We have uncovered significant evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations on multiple properties to obtain economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions for years.
— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) January 19, 2022
James’ office subpoenaed the three Trumps in recent weeks as part of a yearslong investigation into the Trump Organization, the first time her office went public that it was seeking information from Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. The investigation began in March 2019, shortly after Trump’s longtime lawyer Michael Cohen testified before Congress that the business magnate had inflated some assets to obtain favorable loan terms while devaluing others to pay less in taxes.
The Trump family has sued the attorney general’s office to have the suit thrown out and in December said the case was a “thinly-veiled effort to publicly malign Trump and his associates.”
James said Tuesday, however, that “no one in this country can pick and choose if and how the law applies to them.”
“We will not be deterred in our efforts to continue this investigation and ensure that no one is above the law,” she said.
This article originally appeared on HuffPost and has been updated.
