N.Y. Attorney General James continues civil probe, deposition of Trump family ‘without fear or favor’
New York State Attorney General Letitia James (Seth Wenig/AP)
New York Attorney General James on Friday said she was ready for a months-long standoff with former President Donald Trump and his adult kids — who are attempting to dodge sitting for a court-ordered deposition on appeal.
“Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump were ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. While they have the right to seek a delay, they cannot deter us from following the facts and the law wherever they may lead,” said James in a statement.
“Make no mistake: My office will continue to pursue this case without fear or favor because no one is above the law.”
Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron ruled last week that Trump and his adult kids had to sit for the depositions in the investigation by March 10. James’s posturing follows an indication by Trump’s lawyers to Insider that he would appeal the decision to the Appellate Division, First Department. The process typically takes months.
The judge said he didn’t buy Trump’s argument that James opened the probe due to bias or discrimination but because of Michael Cohen’s comments to Congress in 2018 that the company was “cooking the books.”
Among other leads, the state AG is examining whether the Trump Organization manipulated the value of at least 10 of its properties to the IRS, lenders, and insurers — from the size of Trump’s luxury Manhattan penthouse to the value of his golf clubs in Los Angeles and Scotland — to enrich itself.
Former President Donald Trump (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
Engoron’s ruling came three days after Trump’s longtime accounting firm Mazars USA cut ties and remarkably announced that a decade’s worth of his company’s financial statements could “no longer be relied upon.”
James’ investigation runs parallel to a three-year criminal probe by the Manhattan district attorney, in which at least two of her investigators have been embedded. The DA has charged the Trump Organization and its long-serving chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg with skirting more than $1.7 million in income tax during a 15-year “audacious” tax fraud scheme.
The company and Weisselberg asked a judge to dismiss the felony charges against them in filings Wednesday. In part, arguing that the evidence against them was fabricated by a “vendetta”-wielding Cohen, who’s spent more than 300 hours cooperating in the probe.
Donald Trump Jr. (left) and Ivanka Trump (right) (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)
Whatever testimony James ultimately procures during her civil probe can be used by the DA. But the abrupt Wednesday departures of veteran investigators Mark Pomerantz and Carey Dunne questioned the likelihood DA Alvin Bragg will make history by bringing criminal charges against the former president.
A source on Wednesday pushed back at the suggestion Trump’s alleged criminality was not a priority for the new DA.
“He [Bragg] is just following the facts,” said the source, noting Pomerantz and Dunne’s withdrawal from the case did not signal that it would disappear. “There’s a whole team of lawyers.”
Trump has decried all of the allegations as a politically-motivated “witch hunt.” James and Bragg are Democrats — as was former Manhattan DA Cy Vance first launched the criminal probe.
Lawyers for Trump and Trump Organization did not respond to requests for comment.