The Manhattan district attorney’s office on Monday hinted that its subpoena for President Trump’s tax returns is part of an investigation into “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization,” including potential fraud allegations detailed in media reports in recent years.
In response to the latest legal challenge by Trump’s attorneys, New York County prosecutors said that news reports about the president’s financial history provide sufficient justification for requesting the extensive amount of information from the accounting firm Mazars in their grand jury investigation.
“In light of these public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization, there was nothing facially improper (or even particularly unusual) about the Mazars Subpoena, which [was] issued in connection with a complex financial investigation, requesting eight years of records from an accounting firm,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing submitted Monday.
A footnote in the court filing listed three media stories published in 2018 and 2019 about the president’s financial history. One of them, a Washington Post story published last year, reported that Trump had inflated his net worth to potential lenders and investors.
Prosecutors also cited a 2018 New York Times investigation that found Trump had employed “dubious tax schemes” that included “outright fraud” while managing the Trump Organization, which he still owns, in the 1990s.
A third story, from The Wall Street Journal, details former Trump attorney Michael Cohen’s allegations that the president directed him to pay hush money to two women who claim to have had affairs with the president. Those allegations had been previously cited by the prosecutor’s office in issuing the subpoena.
Last month, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 that Trump did not have any special immunity to a grand jury investigation like the one being pursued by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
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Prosecutors hint at probe into "possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization" https://t.co/1Ta1A1eSoU pic.twitter.com/kDrGjTHTfs
— The Hill (@thehill) August 3, 2020
BREAKING: The Manhattan district attorney’s office suggested it is investigating Trump and his company for possible bank and insurance fraud.
It's a significantly broader inquiry than the prosecutors have acknowledged in the past.https://t.co/rsJUKNlHm2— Cliff Levy (@cliffordlevy) August 3, 2020
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