The New York State Attorney General’s Office has asked a judge to order Eric Trump to testify under oath and the Trump organization to hand over documents about four Trump properties it is investigating. and claims the company has been holding the survey for months, court documents show.
Mr. Trump, who is the son of President Trump and the executive vice president of the company, abruptly canceled an interview under oath with the attorney general’s office last month, and last week the Trump Organization told the bureau that the company and its attorneys would not follow through with seven statements related to the investigation.
The applications to the State Supreme Court in Manhattan come because President Trump has legal actions on several fronts. The Manhattan attorney’s attorney’s office has suggested in court filings that it investigate possible banking and insurance fraud by the president and the Trump Organization.
Attorney General Letitia James began the civil investigation in March 2019, after President Trump’s personal lawyer, Michael D. Cohen, told Congress that the president had inflated his assets in financial statements to banks when he applied for loans and had understated them to reduce his immovable property tax.
The agency first submitted records of two of the Trump Organization’s lenders, Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank, in search of loan records for four of the company’s major projects and a failed attempt to oust the NFL’s Buffalo Bills in 2014 for sale.
The Trump organization initially provided some information and tried to prevent the attorney general from seeking a similar court eight months ago, after the company failed to disclose information about a particular property.
But more recently, the attorney general’s office said, the Trump Organization had stalled and stoned to death, according to the filings, some of which were sealed.
The investigation assesses a number of Trump characteristics, including several that were raised in Mr. Cohen’s testimony. The Seven Springs estate in Westchester County, NY, the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago, 40 Wall Street in Lower Manhattan and the Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles, were the subject of the keywords.
The Attorney General’s Office has also asked the judge to order two attorneys to be sworn in for interviews: Charles Martabano, a land use attorney who works for the Trump Organization, and Sheri A. Dillon, who ‘ t President Trump and his company have represented on tax matters.
The bureau also asked the judge to sue the company Ms. Order Dillon – Morgan, Lewis & Bockius – to comply with a lawsuit, along with the Trump Organization, two related entities that own Trump properties, and Seven Springs LLC, which owns the Westchester County estate.
President Trump and his company have not responded to news stories about the investigation in the past year, but the president has complained for years about Mrs. James and her predecessors, saying he is the victim of politically motivated investigations.
While the investigation is civil, if Ms. James has found evidence of criminal crimes, she could refer the case to another law enforcement agency or ask Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo of New York for authorization for a criminal case.
The inquiry began after Mr Cohen told the House Committee on Oversight and Reform last year that President Trump had deliberately inflated the value of his assets to show a net worth of as much as $ 8.7 billion in financial documents, many of which were provided to Deutsche Bank.
“I believe these numbers have been inflated,” Mr Cohen said at the time, adding that he was present when the documents were given to the bank.
“It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the richest people in Forbes, and deflecting his assets to reduce his real estate tax,” he said. Cohen in his testimony.
Last month, the United States Supreme Court published two rulings that paved the way for statesmen in Manhattan to seek the president’s tax return, but tried congressional attempts to obtain the financial records, at least for now.
Mr. Trump and Manhattan attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. are saving up in court over the records.
Ms. James began investigating her office in 2019, after months of promising to aggressively investigate Mr. Trump. Months earlier, she had listed herself under possible legal headaches for the president, along with Mr Cohen and Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel seeking Russian interference in the 2016 elections.
“The president of the United States has to worry about three things: Mueller, Cohen and Tish James,” she said.
The New York State Attorney General’s Office has brought the dissolution of the Trump Foundation, the scandal Mr. Trump placed non-profit. Ms James also announced this month that she was seeking to dissolve the National Rifle Association, which is based in New York and one of the president’s toughest allies.
Last year, Mr. Trump said on Twitter that Mr. Cuomo “uses his Attorney General as a bludgeoning tool for his own purposes,” even though Mrs. James is an independently elected official and not the governor’s nominee.
Mrs. James replied by tweeting that she “had a sworn duty to protect and uphold state law,” adding, “PS My name is Letitia James. (You can call me Tish.)”
Kitty Bennett contributed research.
