Trump faces N.Y. probe into assets data for loans
New York is investigating whether President Donald Trump’s company falsely reported the value of his assets to secure loans and get tax benefits as claimed last year by Trump’s former personal lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen.
New York Attorney General Letitia James said Monday that she’s suing to enforce seven subpoenas seeking thousands of documents and testimony from multiple witnesses. They include Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, who refused to show up for a subpoena interview, she said.
The investigation is looking into transactions involving a Trump skyscraper in Manhattan called 40 Wall Street, as well as the president’s high-rise hotel in Chicago and a Los Angeles golf club. James said a particular focus of the investigation is an obscure property called Seven Springs on 212 acres outside New York City. Eric Trump is president of that company.
Cohen triggered the probe after he handed Congress a series of Trump financial records from 2011 to 2013, New York said in a filing in state court in Manhattan. The investigation is looking into whether Trump inflated the value of assets to secure favorable terms for loans and insurance, as well as whether he devalued other assets to avoid taxes, according to the filing.
The suit also names a Trump lawyer, tax attorney Sheri Dillon. She didn’t respond to emails or calls seeking comment.
James “has not concluded its investigation and has not reached a determination regarding whether the facts identified to date establish violations of any applicable laws,” her office said in one of the court filings.
Trump attorney Alan Garten said in an email that the complaint is “simply a discovery dispute over documents and the like.”
“As the motion papers clearly state, the NYAG has made no determination that anything was improper or that any action is forthcoming,” Garten said. “We will respond to this motion as appropriate.”
The dispute comes as Trump is fighting subpoenas for his tax records and financial documents in a separate grand jury probe led by the Manhattan district attorney.
In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected Trump’s claim to be immune from state investigations while in office. District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. has signaled that his probe goes beyond the hush payments to a porn actress that triggered the investigation.