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As a result of a court ruling Thursday that mandated that Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump, and Donald Trump Jr. all sit for sworn depositions, New York Attorney General Letitia “Tish” James will be able to interrogate Trump.
James’ investigation into the Trump Organization, the hotel, real estate, and golf-resort conglomerate centered in New York City, which was launched three years ago, appears to be winding down, but she appears to have more fireworks planned.
In a filing two months ago, James separated herself from criminal charges. As stated in the court brief, James was not attempting to bring any criminal charges against the Trumps or their company except from what the Manhattan district attorney’s office was already planning on doing, which doesn’t appear to be much.
Instead, James may try to utilize her powers under state executive authority to completely destroy Trump’s economic empire, something she has already done successfully with the Trump Foundation and so far unsuccessfully with the NRA.
Over the past five months, she has indicated that she intends to seek New York’s so-called “corporation death sentence” in a huge case against Trump’s business.
By law, the first line of any lawsuit must say “People of New York, by Attorney General Letitia James of the State of New York.”
It’s not just the roughly five dozen public slurs and threats James has made against Trump since she was running for attorney general that have been compiled and annotated by Trump’s legal team in a spreadsheet, but also the fact that she has given ample warning that she plans to go after the former president in the lawsuit’s caption.
More officially, James has stated this year in legal filings that Trump’s ten-year history of financial statements — annual accountings of his net worth, used to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in bank loans and tax benefits — is full of “misrepresentations.”
In February, Mazars USA, the former accountancy firm of Trump, said that the statements it had provided “should no longer be relied upon,” confirming this conclusion.
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At least some of Trump’s potentially inaccurate financial statements were individually certified by him each year through 2016 and he personally reviewed them.
In 2017, the Trump Organization was transferred to a revocable trust, with President Trump as the sole beneficiary, and the trust was dissolved in 2018. Another possible target was Eric Trump, the executive vice president of the Trump family business along with Donald Trump Jr., who confirmed the claims.
James’ office has alleged that Trump’s “liquidity,” or cash on hand, was exaggerated; that “outside professionals” were used to set asset values that don’t appear to exist; and that Trump’s “brand value” was included, despite the statements’ assurance that they excluded brand value in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles.
While being deposed by James’ office in October 2020, Eric Trump asserted his Fifth Amendment right more than 500 times.
Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr. have yet to say whether they would comply with the attorney general’s summons for their testimony or continue to dispute them.
Lawyers for the Trump family have insisted that no misconduct has occurred. Accordingly, they would most certainly argue that no Trump could be held personally liable for the financial statements’ certified numbers and that real-estate valuations are usually subjective estimates.
According to a statement from the attorney general’s senior enforcement counsel, Kevin Wallace: “We’re not just interested in finding out what other people think about the data; we’re also interested in finding out how objective the data is. False statements, to put it mildly.”
A total of 40 people have been summoned and deposed as part of the wide-ranging investigation, according to James. For now, it’s unclear which witnesses and/or targets were subjected to questioning in this investigation.
James isn’t afraid to speak her mind. Her lawsuit against the Trump Organization’s 500 or so distinct corporations will not succeed.
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As an illustration, the 164-page 2020 lawsuit filed by James against the NRA is the result of an 18-month investigation by the state’s attorney general. As a comparison, her Trump investigation has taken twice as long and been a much larger undertaking.
As many as a dozen of James’s staff attorneys have gathered, categorized and evaluated more than 900,00 pages in the Trump investigation from the attorney general’s office in lower Manhattan, totaling 6 million pages.
Cushman & Wakefield, the Trumps’ appraiser, was rejected last week by a federal judge as a last-ditch effort by Trump to terminate James’ investigation by suing them both.
There has already been a staggering quantity of litigation. The attorney general’s March answer to the three Trumps’ appeal of having to testify contained 5,587 pages of argument and evidence; its table of contents alone runs to 16 pages. This was just one submission.
Professor Norman Eisen, a senior researcher at Brookings Institution who wrote a paper in June looking into possible criminal charges, said: “Clearly the attorney general is setting up for something big here.”
In contrast to her colleague, Alvin Bragg, who resigned after his own lead prosecutors concluded that there was proof beyond a reasonable doubt, “and her determination that she’s shown, her doggedness, just the sheer amount of litigation that she has devoted to this, I think puts her in an entirely different category from her colleague,” Eisen said, referring to the Manhattan DA.
It has emerged that at least 12 of President Trump’s assets, ranging in size and location from east to west of the country, may have been involved in questionable financial transactions in hundreds of public court files over the past two years.
Trump National Golf Club is located just outside of Los Angeles on the west coast. A conservation easement on a landslide-prone driving range that former President George H.W. Bush donated after exaggerating its potential development value was donated by his staff, according to James.
Trump Tower in Chicago is home to a $300 million Deutsche Bank loan that the attorney general contends was predicated on inaccurate financial status statements signed by Eric Trump. The Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC, and the Trump National Doral in Miami are also part of the Trump portfolio.
The Trump Organization and the majority of its assets are based in New York, and the state’s top law enforcement official has conducted the most thorough investigation there.
When James issued her first summons, she targeted 212 acres of woods owned by Donald Trump in 1995 and where a dozen years of development attempts were stalled due to strict Westchester zoning restrictions.
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It is alleged by the attorney general that Donald Trump used the property in a different way to gain money.
From 2007 through 2012, he valued it at $291 million based on development ideas that local officials had specifically vetoed, according to his financial statements from that time period.
As a result, she accuses him of granting a 156-acre easement to the nearby nature reserve with a “misleading” valuation. The Trump Organization “may have gotten more than $5 million in tax benefits from misrepresenting appraisals of conservation easements” at Seven Springs and the Los Angeles golf course, she wrote in January.
James has reportedly set her sights on a number of Trump-owned buildings in New York City. Some examples include 40 Wall Street, where Donald Trump’s stake increased in value from 2012 to 2015, and his own Trump Town Fifth Avenue triplex penthouse, which the attorney general claimed Trump continued to claim had three times its actual square size.
A total of four sworn, court-ordered depositions are still pending in the attorney general’s investigation, each of which is critical enough for James to delay bringing her enormous lawsuit until they are all completed.
Rhona Graff, Trump’s longtime personal assistant, will be deposed on Tuesday in addition to the three Trumps who have already been scheduled for depositions.
Additionally, Graff is an important witness.
Given that only 10 of the 900,000 documents released by the Trump Organization were from Trump’s personal business files, the attorney general has many questions for Graff.
They want to know about Trump’s “retention and preservation practice” for papers relating to the financial statements, in particular.
Amer, the attorney general’s special counsel, inquired recently in a court document to New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, the Manhattan judge presiding over the probe’s subpoena-related litigation in Manhattan.
“Did he leave any comments or queries on any drafts?” An additional question he had for Graff, Amer inquired.
“If that’s the case, where did those drafts go? In what form did Mr. Trump receive the final version of the statement? How did he make it plain that he agreed with him?”
Further appeals by Trump lawyers or Cushman & Wakefield, which was ordered after a protracted dispute to give up its own last batch of tens of thousands of subpoenaed records by this month, might also postpone James’ lawsuit.
James, on the other hand, plans to file as soon as possible.
Wallace, the attorney general’s senior enforcement counsel, said during a hearing in late April that “we would certainly need to pursue some form of enforcement action in the near future.”
As the state’s first female attorney general, Letitia James has the authority to open an investigation into former President’s business dealings.
New York’s Executive Law, which among other things sets the powers and duties of state officials
New York’s Executive Law, which among other things sets the powers and duties of state officials
“Whenever any person shall engage in repeated fraudulent or illegal acts or otherwise demonstrate persistent fraud or illegality in the carrying on, conducting or transaction of business–“
When characterizing the alleged pattern of deception in Donald Trump’s financial records, the attorney general uses the words “persistent” and “repeated” frequently.
A civil inquiry can be launched by the attorney general in cases of “persistent” fraud, giving him or her the authority to issue subpoenas, seek damages and seek a state judge’s order “enjoining” or stopping the fraudulent behavior.
A judge’s order to dissolve the company, known as the “corporation death sentence,” can also be sought by the state attorney general when necessary.
The state’s Martin Act, more commonly known as New York General Business Law Article 23-A, has also been often mentioned by James’ office, but less frequently. Eric Schneiderman, James’ predecessor, had utilized this strict and broad securities legislation against AIG CEO Maurice Greenberg in 2017.
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It is possible that the Martin Act will be part of James’ strategy, as he has asserted that Trump used a fraudulent appraisal of his 40 Wall Street ownership to secure a $160 million securitized mortgage loan in 2015.
James has been making huge promises for years, even before he became president. It may be time to seek the corporate death penalty and millions of dollars in restitution for illegal tax gains.
Her promise to sue him was made in an Instagram post on November 7, 2018, the day after New Yorkers voted her in as the city’s top cop.
While clad in her typical power red, she promised, “We’re going to be a real pain in the ass,” she promised, dressed in her trademark power-red and grinning broadly on that warm, windy day. “He’s going to know my name personally.”
isthatporks take; a lot of people loath when the man who once said ” I can shoot someone on 5th ave in New York City and get away with it” pays for the many things he is faced with. Back in the ’70s, 80’s&90’s many people would have traded places with Trump. Not so much today. Trumps “Star” as a human and as a reflection of the universe was so bright, that a blind man could see. But it may be dimming. We are all reflections but he attracts many things that could destroy his. He’s already done that to many that were close to him. A blind man can see that too. All one has to look at is what someone was before and after dealing with Donald Trump. Jan 6th anyone? Some were smart and got out of his orbit in fear of getting too close to the Sun. The alleged approval of the hanging of his vice president is too much for some to acknowledge but you can’t look at Donald Trump with normal eyes, he wants you to worship him with extraordinary eyes. We are paying close attention to all things Trump cause one thing we do know is whatever happens with him will be a direct result of who will be inspired or not inspired to travel down that same road again. No one is in vain. There is a lesson in Donald Trump, it all depends on who and what is listening, who and what is eating, and who and what is digesting or throwing up.
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