The accusations by Attorney General Letitia James mark a substantial escalation of her civil investigation into the dealings of the former Republican president of the United States, the Trump Organization, and the role of his adult children.
The prosecutor’s initiative is part of her effort to force Donald Trump and his children Donald and Ivanka to comply with their subpoenas to testify under oath, something the family has asked a judge to block.
Neither Trump nor his children have been charged with crimes. Although James cannot press criminal charges because his investigation is civil, he can sue the Trumps and the company. The former president has called the nearly three-year investigation of James, a Democrat, a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
In documents filed late Tuesday in a New York state court in Manhattan, James described what she called misleading statements about the values of six Trump properties, as well as the “Trump brand.”
The properties are golf clubs in Aberdeen, Scotland, and in suburban Westchester County near New York City; the Seven Springs estate in Westchester, buildings on Wall Street and Park Avenue in Manhattan, and Trump’s penthouse in Trump Tower.
James has been investigating whether property values were inflated to obtain bank loans and reduced to pay less taxes.
His presentation described evidence of false statements to lenders, insurers and the Internal Revenue Service. James wants a judge to order the Trumps to testify within 21 days.
“We have uncovered significant evidence suggesting that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for financial gain,” James said in a statement.
“The Trumps must comply with our legal requests for documents and testimony because no one in this country gets to choose whether and how the law applies to them,” he added.
Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, called James’ allegations in a statement “simply the latest in a long series of baseless attacks on my client and an obvious attempt to distract the public from his own misconduct.” Letitia, you are not above the law.”
The Trump Organization said in a statement that it will defend itself against “baseless” accusations from James, which it accused of misrepresenting the facts and misleading the public because he is faced with “the stark reality that there is no case.”
By Jonathan Stempel and Shivam Patel, Reuters agency
Source From: Ambito
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