Letitia James
ALBANY – New York’s attorney general asked a court Monday to compel some of President Donald Trump’s business associates, including his son, Eric, to testify and turn over documents as part of her investigation into whether the president’s company lied about the value of its assets in order to get loans or tax benefits from New York State.
Attorney General Letitia James said her civil investigation of potential fraud in Trump’s business dealings, which began last year, has been held up by a lack of cooperation from the president and his family.
Eric Trump’s lawyers are citing “the Constitution” as the reason he won’t give testimony, suggesting he wasw invoking the Fifth Amendment to avoid the law enforcement subpoena.
The petition seeking the court’s intervention was filed after lawyers for Eric Trump abruptly cancelled his planned interview with investigators late last month.
According to the New York Post, James is conducting a broad inquiry into the Trump Organization’s financial dealings that includes an investigation into whether President Trump and his son Eric improperly inflated the value of a 230-acre family retreat in Westchester County, court filings revealed Monday.
The Trump Organization received a $21.1 million tax deduction on the property with a 50,000-square-foot mansion in 2015. Eric Trump is president of the corporate entity that owns Seven Springs and was “intimately involved” in efforts to develop the site, according to the AG’s office.
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