After James, who sought to force Trumps to comply, the subpoenas were issued by Attorney General Letitia James. James had been conducting a long-running investigation into matters such as “the valuation of properties owned/controlled” by Trump.
A judge from a state court who has handled previous disputes arising out of the probe agreed Monday that he would entertain arguments about the subpoenas. These subpoenas also seek documents from Donald Trumps in addition their testimony.
James, a Democrat has spent over two years investigating whether Trump Organization misled tax officials or banks about the assets’ value — either inflating them for favorable terms or minimising them to get tax savings.
Trumps have stated that they will fight subpoenas. They are expected to file court papers through lawyers to request the removal of them. After James’ office subpoenaed Eric Trump’s testimony, a similar legal battle erupted last year.
Monday’s messages seeking comment were sent to the Trump lawyers and the attorney general’s offices.
Monday’s file was also the first to disclose that investigators sought information from Ivanka Trump Jr. and Donald Trump Jr. in the course of the probe. Last month, it was reported that James requested Donald Trump to sit for a deposition. Monday’s court filing by her office was the first public acknowledgment that it had subpoenaed Trump Jr.
Trump sued James last month in federal court to stop her investigation as the legal battle over subpoenas heated up behind closed doors. Trump claimed that James had violated him constitutional rights in a thinly disguised effort to publicly denigrate Trump and his associates.
The Republican ex-president used to decry James’ investigation, calling it a “witch hunt”, along with a parallel criminal investigation being conducted by the Manhattan district attorneys’ office.
As part of their investigation, James’ investigators interviewed Eric Trump, an executive at the Trump Organization, last year. James’ office took the probe to court to obtain a subpoena for Trump younger brother. A judge ordered him to testify because his lawyers had cancelled a scheduled deposition.
James’ office was involved in both the criminal and civil investigations, even though they are separate.
After a long-running battle that went twice to the U.S. Supreme Court, Cyrus Vance Jr. was granted access to the tax records of the longtime realty mogul last year. In July, he also filed tax fraud charges against the Trump Organization’s longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg.
Vance called a new grand jury to hear evidence during the investigation before he resigned. However, he did not give the final decision on the additional charges to Alvin Bragg, his successor. According to the new district attorney, he will be directly involved in the Trump case while also keeping the two veteran prosecutors who handled the case under Vance.
Weisselberg has pleaded not guilty in the absence of evidence that he and his company evaded taxes on lucrative fringe benefit payments paid to executives.
These investigations are at most partially related to claims made by Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney, that Trump has a history of misrepresenting assets’ value.
James’ office issued subpoenas for local governments to conduct a civil probe to obtain records regarding Trump’s North Manhattan estate, Seven Springs and the tax benefit Trump received by donating land to a conservation trust. Vance issued subpoenas for many of these records later.
James’ office also has been investigating similar issues regarding a Trump office in New York City and a Chicago hotel. Her office won a number of court rulings that forced Trump’s company, and the law firm it hired, to turn over vast amounts of records.
