New York AG’s Investigation Into Trump’s Business Turns Criminal
The New York attorney general's office said Tuesday that it
is conducting a criminal investigation into former President Donald Trump's
business empire, expanding what had previously been a civil probe.
"We have informed the Trump Organization that our
investigation into the company is no longer purely civil in nature,"
Fabien Levy, a spokesperson for Attorney General Letitia James, said in a
statement.
"We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization
in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA," Levy said.
James' investigators are working with the Manhattan district
attorney's office, which has been conducting a criminal investigation into
Trump and his company, the Trump Organization, for two years. James and
District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. are both Democrats.
James' office offered no explanation for what prompted the
change in its approach to the investigation or why it chose to announce it
publicly. CNN was first to report the development.
Levy declined further comment. A spokesperson for Vance
declined comment. A message seeking comment was left with a lawyer for Trump
and spokespeople for the former president and his company.
In the past, the Republican ex-president has decried the
investigations as part of a Democratic "witch hunt."
James' disclosure of a widening investigation is not
necessarily an indication that she is planning to bring criminal charges. In
New York, if that were to happen, the state attorney general can do so through
a county district attorney, like Vance, or with a referral from Gov. Andrew
Cuomo or a state agency.
James' civil investigation and Vance's criminal probe had
overlapped in some areas, including examining whether Trump or his businesses
manipulated the value of assets — inflating them in some cases and minimizing
them in others — to gain favorable loan terms and tax benefits.
Vance's investigation also included a look at hush-money
payments paid to women on Trump's behalf and the propriety of tax write-offs
the Trump Organization claimed on millions of dollars in consulting fees it
paid, including money that went to Trump's daughter, Ivanka.
Vance's office hasn't publicly said what it is investigating,
citing grand jury secrecy rules, but some details have come out during a legal
battle to get access to Trump's tax records, which it finally obtained in
February.
As part of her civil investigation, James' office issued
subpoenas to local governments in November 2019 for records pertaining to
Trump's estate north of Manhattan, Seven Springs and a tax benefit Trump
received for placing land there into a conservation trust.
James was also looking at similar issues relating to a Trump
office building in New York City, a hotel in Chicago and a golf course near Los
Angeles. Her office also won a series of court rulings forcing Trump's company
and a law firm it hired to turn over troves of records.
Vance's investigation has also appeared to focus in recent
weeks on the Trump Organization's longtime finance chief, Allen Weisselberg.
His former daughter-in-law, Jen Weisselberg, has given
investigators reams of documents as they look into how some Trump employees
were compensated with apartments or school tuition.
Weisselberg was subpoenaed in James' civil investigation and
testified twice in 2020. His lawyer didn't immediately respond to an email
Tuesday night.
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