New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking a deposition from former president Donald Trump early next year as part of her investigation into potential fraud inside the Trump Organization, according to people familiar with the matter.

James has requested to take his testimony on Jan. 7 at her New York office as part of a civil investigation into whether Trump’s company committed financial fraud in the valuations of properties reported to different entities, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the inquiry is ongoing.

One of the people familiar with the investigation said James is examining whether widespread fraud “permeated the Trump Organization.”

Fabien Levy, a spokesman for James, declined to comment. Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to messages from The Washington Post. Ronald Fischetti, an attorney who has been representing Trump in investigations into his New York financial practices, also did not respond.

James also suspended her campaign for governor on Thursday, saying she will run for reelection to her current position to “finish the job” amid numerous ongoing investigations, the Associated Press reported.

She had been expected to be a strong challenger against Gov. Kathy Hochul for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination in an increasingly crowded field.

“I have come to the conclusion that I must continue my work as attorney general,” James said in a statement. “There are a number of important investigations and cases that are underway, and I intend to finish the job. I am running for re-election to complete the work New Yorkers elected me to do.”

The deposition marks an escalation in the probe of the former president’s company.

Both the attorney general and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office are scrutinizing whether Trump’s company broke the law by providing low values to property tax officers, while using high ones to garner tax breaks or impress lenders, as The Washington Post previously reported.

James has said she is considering filing a lawsuit over the matter and Manhattan prosecutors have convened a new grand jury to consider potential criminal charges related to the company’s financial practices, according to the people familiar with the investigations.

Trump has not been personally accused of wrongdoing. He has previously attacked James and her probe into his businesses as a “witch hunt” being driven by a prominent New York Democrat who has vowed to use her perch to investigate him and his company.

Privately, the former president has regularly expressed frustration about the investigation, according to people close to him.

If Trump refuses to appear for the deposition, James and her office could take him to court and try to force him to comply.

Last year, James’s investigators subpoenaed the former president’s son Eric – a longtime executive at the Trump Organization – seeking to depose him as part of the same investigation. Eric Trump initially refused to comply, with his lawyers citing “those rights afforded to every individual under the Constitution,” according to a legal filing from James’ office.

He later agreed to comply and was questioned last October.

Earlier this fall, the former president sat for a 4½ hour deposition in another case. In that lawsuit, he was questioned by lawyers for a group of protesters who have sued him, alleging that Trump’s security guards assaulted them in 2015.

Before taking office, Trump sat for numerous depositions as part of civil litigation, at times forced to acknowledged facts that he had previously denied.

“He can’t be scripted, and he’s injudicious, and he often doesn’t understand that the process is about events and facts, rather than being performance art,” said Tim O’Brien, a Trump biographer who sued him. In the 2007 deposition taken for that suit, Trump was confronted by O’Brien’s lawyers with 30 false statements or misstatements.

In their inquiries, New York prosecutors are examining financial statements related to several of Trump’s properties, including his California golf club, for which he valued the same parcel of land at $900,000 and $25 million depending on the intended audience, and an estate in suburban New York, for which Trump’s valuations ranged from $56 million up to $291 million. The valuations were all given in the five years before Trump won the presidency.

Appraisers have said it is highly unusual for a company to provide such widely different valuations of the same properties at the same time.

Prosecutors appear to have dug deeply into these properties, according to court papers and people familiar with the investigation. They have compiled reams of emails, planning documents and financial data, even seeking the initiation fees Trump charged golf club members as far back as a decade ago. In Los Angeles, they have asked for geology reports on the rock layers under Trump’s course, where the value was affected by a history of landslides.

Earlier this year, in a joint investigation with Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, James charged Allen Weisselberg, the chief financial officer of the Trump Organization, and two Trump corporate entities with tax crimes.

In that case, prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg had hidden some of his own compensation – and the compensation of other Trump executives – from tax authorities, to lower the taxes they owed. Prosecutors alleged that Weisselberg had avoided paying more than $900,000 over 15 years.

Weisselberg and the Trump companies all pleaded not guilty. The former president was not accused of any wrongdoing in that case.

 

The Washington Post’s Shayna Jacobs in New York contributed to this story.

Copy the Story Link

« Previous

U.S. expands Pfizer COVID booster, opens extra dose to age 16

Next »

Pamela Smart, who recruited teen lover to kill her husband, seeks pardon