NEW YORK — New York’s attorney general asked a court Monday to enforce subpoenas into an investigation into whether President Donald Trump and his businesses inflated assets on financial statements.
Attorney General Letitia James filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization, an umbrella group for the Republican president’s holdings, as a respondent along with other business entities. The filing also named Eric Trump and Seven Springs, a New York estate owned by the Trump family.
The attorney general’s office is investigating whether the Trump Organization and the president improperly inflated the value of assets to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits. Investigators are looking into whether the Trump Organization and its agents improperly inflated the value of the Seven Springs north of the city. James asked the judge to order Eric Trump to provide testimony.
The investigation centers around a number of Trump Organization properties around the country including in Westchester County, NY, on Wall Street in New York, the Trump Tower in Chicago, and a Trump-owned golf course in Los Angeles.
The Attorney General’s Office has access to Donald Trump’s financial information pertaining to state-related matters.
Sources could not elaborate on the extent of access, to what financials, or whether any federal law enforcement agencies were part of this investigation.
According to a memorandum filed with the New York State Supreme Court, the Attorney General says, “the Trump Organization is withholding or redacting dozens of responsive records — on the basis of attorney-client privilege, work product, or both — that relate to three properties important to OAG’s investigation: Seven Springs, 40 Wall Street, and Trump Golf LA.
"Second, the Trump Organization has refused entirely to produce documents that would establish whether the loan forgiveness in connection with the loans on the Chicago property was recognized as income for tax purposes.
"Third, the Trump Organization is refusing to produce records that would confirm how the $21.1 million donation of the Seven Springs easement was reflected on applicable tax returns."
In the court filings, the attorney general’s office wrote that “information regarding the valuation of Seven Springs is significant” to the office’s investigation.
Emails seeking comment were sent to lawyers for the Trump Organization and Eric Trump, one of the president's sons, by the Associated Press.
The investigation was launched in March 2019 after Trump’s longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that Trump had inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms for loans and insurance coverage.
Since then, the attorney general’s office has issued “a number of subpoenas and has taken testimony seeking information material to these matters,” the court filing said. Investigators have not yet determined whether the law was broken.
James' office issued subpoenas to the Trump Organization and to Seven Springs LLC in December 2019, seeking financial documents, the filing said. Since then, both have “engaged in extensive good-faith discussions concerning the Trump Organization’s compliance with the subpoenas.”
The attorney general’s office is also attempting to collect information about several other Trump-related properties, including the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago and an office building on Wall Street in Manhattan where the Trump Organization “owns a ‘ground lease’ pertaining to the property.”
This investigation is separate from the one being conducted by Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance. James' request comes as Vance is trying to obtain Trump's tax returns for eight years while his office also investigates the Trump Organization. Vance's office agreed Monday to delay enforcement of the subpoena, allowing for Trump to continue to fight it in the courts.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.