“Donald Trump stands out as among the most egregious examples. Noting how Trump and Weisselberg cited fifth-amendment protections against self-incrimination when refusing to answer questions at deposition, James said: “For too long, powerful, wealthy people in this country have operated as if the rules do not apply to them. In a separate criminal investigation, in New York, Weisselberg, 75, has pleaded guilty to tax fraud. The suit also seeks to recover at least $250m and to bar the Trump Organization chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and comptroller, Jeffrey McConney, from serving in top roles of any company in New York. The lawsuit states: “The number of grossly inflated asset values is staggering, affecting most if not all of the real estate holdings in any given year.” James said her office uncovered evidence of federal criminal violations including issuing false statements to financial institutions and bank fraud, and had referred the matter to the southern district of New York and the IRS. He did this with the help of the other defendants.” James added: “The complaint demonstrates that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to unjustly enrich himself and to cheat the system, thereby cheating all of us. The lawsuit seeks to bar all four Trumps from serving as executives in New York, and to prohibit the Trump Organization from acquiring any commercial real estate or receiving loans from New York-based entities for five years. Trump, Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump were all deposed during the New York investigation, which began when Trump was president and lasted for three years. So, that's what I mean, that it's smart, as a litigation strategy, to stick to facts that can be verified and proven to be false.Announcing the suit in New York on Wednesday, Letitia James also said referrals had been made to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service – a move sure to anger the former US president and increase consternation among his inner circle about the depth of his legal predicament. What's the square footage of the apartment? So things like that, or whether or not statements were prepared with the input of outside professionals, that can be verified whether, in fact, outside professionals gave their sanction to the statements.Īnd according to the allegations in the complaint, some of those outside professionals were interviewed by the attorney general, and they did not provide input of the kind that's described in the statements or sanction them in any way. It's going to be tested in the courts.īecause I think that the attorney general anticipated that the defense here was likely to be that these are the kinds of practices that are routinely engaged in, in the real estate industry, I think she was wise to make her allegations as concrete as possible and grounded in representations that were made that could be shown to be objectively false, so, for example, the square footage that Andrea talked about, for example, of the former president's apartment, that was grossly inflated in some of the statements. And a judge has said, politics doesn't matter. She talked about that in her press conference today. She, of course, we all remember, interviewed the former president. The attorney general has gotten a lot of information, millions of pages of documents, she said. And this case has already survived several hurdles.Īnd, in New York, and in a civil case like this, the case is already quite advanced. It doesn't matter that she talked when she was running for office about investigating Trump. This has been a running argument that's been going on since January in New York state Supreme Court, whether the attorney general was entitled to get information from the former president and his company, or whether she is just trying to get it to embarrass the former president and his company.Īnd what the judge in the case has ruled is, it doesn't matter that the New York attorney general is a Democrat. Well, according to the judge in this investigation, it doesn't matter.
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