The New York Attorney General’s Office announced Tuesday that it has unveiled a body of evidence that former U.S. President Donald Trump and his company have made inaccurate property valuations in order to obtain loans, insurance coverage and tax benefits.
The findings were detailed in court documents that asked the judge to order Trump and two of his older children, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr., to comply with civil summonses related to the firm’s fraud investigation. Attorney General Leticia James’s office said that while they have not yet decided whether to take legal action against Trump, the basis for the investigation is “obvious.”
“Meanwhile in our investigation we have uncovered significant evidence that has hinted that Donald J. Trump and the Trump organization incorrectly and misleadingly assessed many assets and presented these assets inaccurately to financial institutions in order to receive economic benefits,” said James, who is a Democrat.
The Trump family has sought to cancel the summonses or suspend them until a parallel criminal investigation comes to an end. Attorneys for the Trump family argued that any information obtained by Attorney General’s attorneys through affidavits could be improperly used in the criminal investigation conducted by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office along with attorneys from Attorney General’s Office.
Alan Potreps, an attorney working for Donald Jr. and Ivanka Trump, argued in documents he filed with the court that the attorney general’s office did not address the family’s core arguments.
“Throughout the 160 pages of the briefing, the Attorney General’s Office has deliberately refrained from addressing James’ repeated threats against the Trump family and its announcements about the criminal investigation – which form the essence of our request to postpone or delay the summonses,” Potreps said.
“Baseless accusations”
A spokeswoman for the Trump organization said James’ allegations were baseless. “She deceived New Yorkers by basing her entire priesthood on a promise to capture Trump at all costs, without seeing a shred of evidence and in violation of any conceivable ethical rule,” the spokeswoman said. In the past, James defended her investigation and said no one was above the law.
Alina Haba, a lawyer who works for Trump, said the documents submitted to the court are the latest in a long series of baseless attacks against the former president.
The firm said the investigation began in March 2019, after former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen testified before Congress that Trump valued his assets in a devalue to lower the property tax liability on them, and inflated the estimates to receive financial benefits.
James’s office said they determined that Trump made inaccurate statements when talking about his financial situation, a collection of financial information collected but not reviewed by his accountants that included valuations of assets and real estate.
The inaccuracies affected Trump’s assets, including Seven Springs, a mansion north of New York City; Trump’s three-story apartment in the Trump Tower; And Trump’s International Golf Club in Scotland, the Attorney General’s Office said.
In order to estimate the value of Trump’s apartment, the statements were based on a calculation of the assumption that the apartment was 2,790 square meters, even though its actual size was 1,020 square meters, according to the Attorney General’s Office. In statements from 2015 and 2016, the apartment was valued at $ 327 million, based on an estimate of 2,790 square meters, the ministry said.
The Attorney General’s Office says the evidence shows that banks and financial institutions relied on those statements when deciding whether to give Trump and his company loans and an insurance policy.