Donald Trump and the Trump Organization is facing a serious new legal investigation - this time initiated by the New York State Attorney General, Letitia James. And this time Eric Trump is personally named. To be clear - the investigation that ended up in the Supreme Court was initiated by the Manhattan DA, Cy Vance, and was initiated to investigate illegal payments to Stormy Daniels. The case filed today by AG James is to investigate Trump's private businesses for allegedly misleading banks in order to get loans through inflating the value of its assets. Totally different. This is also a civil investigation, but it could always lead to criminal charges.
The Washington Post reports that the New York Attorney General is investigating Trump's use of “Statements of Financial Condition” — a document created to summarize his assets and debts. In the court filing, the AG asks a New York state judge to "compel the Trump Organization to provide information it has been withholding from investigators — including a subpoena seeking an interview with the president’s son Eric"
The AG states that this investigation began after Michael Cohen testified in front of Congress in February 2019, alleging that Trump had inflated his net worth to lenders. Interestingly, the filing names Eric Trump personally and states that he had been scheduled for an interview in late July of 2020, but had "abruptly cancelled". Further, Eric is now refusing to be interviewed at all, citing the 5th amendment without actually using those words: “We cannot allow the requested interview to go forward … pursuant to those rights afforded to every individual under the Constitution.”
The filing does not get into too much detail, but it does reference by name three Trump properties: A Los Angeles golf course, an office building at 40 Wall St. and a country estate called “Seven Springs” in Westchester County, N.Y. Just last year a Washington Post article reported that Trump had inflated (lied) about the value of the Seven Springs property in the exact document the AG is looking to get - a “Statement of Financial Condition.” In that documents, Trump claimed the property had been “zoned for nine luxurious homes” and he stated that the lots raised the value of the property to over $260 million. Unfortunately the local authorities assessed the value at only $20 million. That is a shocking disparity. Oh, and the homes were never built. Not one.
The Trump Organization legal counsel provided a statement to the Washington Post stating: “The Trump Organization has done nothing wrong." Of course, he blamed the fiing on politics.
The New York Attorney General posted this thread explaining the case:
Let's see if this where this case goes. Eric Trump is not protected by the same "no one can indict a sitting President" and these are ALL state charges, so no pardon power.
