Donald Trump May Have ‘Deceptive’ Assets to Value: Letitia James

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Former President Donald Trump may have valued many properties “false and fraudulent”, and his family has adopted the tactic of delaying and avoiding testimony when they are not appealing to the Fifth, the New York Attorney General claimed. Letitia James (D) on Tuesday night.

In explosive court documents released before midnight, James declared that the 45th president’s company had nearly tripled the size of its Trump Tower triplex or tax benefits, not assigning value to the brand of Trump, and may use “fraud or deception.” Asset assessments on six assets to obtain economic benefits.

“Delay and Litigation Tactics”

Trump and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump tried to withdraw their subpoenas for what they called unconstitutional and unconstitutional maneuvers for their documents and testimony. According to the attorney general’s latest petition, Eric Trump exercised his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination on more than 500 questions in six hours during his pre-2020 election deposition.

For more than two years, the Trump Organization has used delay and litigation tactics in an attempt to block a legitimate investigation into its financial dealings, James wrote in a statement. So far in our investigation, we have discovered significant evidence suggesting Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization wrongly and fraudulently value multiple assets and misrepresent those amounts to financial institutions for the benefit of economy. Trumps must comply with our legal subpoenas for documents and testimony because 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 no one is above the law.

Trump’s attorney Alina Habba responded with a countershot to the attorney general, who repeatedly mentioned the attorney by his first name.

“True to form, Letitia has resorted to mischaracterizing the contents of a routine motion response as a smoking gun,” Habba wrote in an email to Law & Crime. “This is just the latest in a long line of baseless attacks against my client and an obvious attempt to distract the public from her own inappropriate behavior. Leticia [sic], you are not above the law. ”

Trumps attacked his investigation as politically motivated. James, a Democrat, is running his civil investigation in parallel track with the Manhattan District Attorney’s office’s criminal investigation, which filed several Trump Organization entities and its former CFO Allen Weisselberg last year with multiple lawsuits. tax fraud.

Since then, Alvin Bragg (D) has replaced Cyrus Vance Jr. (D) as Manhattan’s leading prosecutor. Weisselberg is expected to appear in court again on Jan. 31, and James filed his papers in court before the deadline of his expected response to the Trump family’s motion to quash.

“Equal Investigation”

The attorney general’s office argued that the existence of a criminal investigation was no reason to disregard their subpoenas.

“The fact that there may have been a similar investigation being conducted by the New York County District Attorney (‘ DANY ’) is not a standard or sufficient basis for respondents to avoid sitting down for testimony,” the memo stated. attorney general. “Nor does the involvement of attorneys from OAG in any separate criminal investigation provide a basis for the Court to revoke properly issued subpoenas.”

On Dec. 3, 2020, the former president agreed that he would provide documents within two weeks, according to James.

The attorney general said the Trump Organization later insisted the former president had nothing to do with the areas of business that were the subject of subpoenas. As that statement was unreliable, assistant attorney general Kevin Wallace noted that the company’s financial condition statement states: “Donald J. Trump is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of the statement. financially in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America and for designing, implementing, and maintaining internal controls relating to the preparation and fair presentation of the financial statement. “

James said his investigation to date has generally drawn to this conclusion.

“Furthermore, the evidence obtained by OAG indicates that Mr. Trump is personally involved in reviewing and approving the Statements of Financial Conditions prior to their release as the natural and logical focus of an investigation is whether a financial statement is fraudulent or misleading and, if so, who is responsible, ”His memo alleges.

Now approaching its third year, James ’investigations are looking at the Trump Organization’s financial disclosures on several properties in New York, Chicago and Scotland. Much of the office’s inquiry has focused on Trump’s 212-acre Westchester estate known as Seven Springs. Other properties under AG’s review are Trump International Golf Club Scotland, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, Trump Park Avenue, and 40 Wall Street.

In the financial statements, Trump’s company assigned no value to its brand, which the attorney general’s office believes is “false or at least misleading.”

Read the memo, below:

[Image via TIMOTHY A. CLARY/AFP via Getty Images]

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