The New York State prosecutor on Thursday sued former US President Donald Trump for “obstructing” his civil investigation conducted since 2019 into possible fraud in the tax practices of the Trump Organization group.
Prosecutor Letitia James, elected from the Democratic Party, has been pursuing the former head of state and Republican businessman for years and has wanted to hear from him for months. On February 17, she managed to get a New York judge to order the billionaire, as well as his children Donald Jr. and Ivanka, to testify under oath.
Subpoenas against which the Trumps have appealed.
But a civil court in New York State also demanded accounting and tax documents from the Trump Organization by March 31. What the Trumps have still not done in “violation of the court order” on February 17, the prosecutor’s office protested in a statement.
According to a memorandum filed Thursday with the New York State Supreme Court, Letitia James is therefore suing Donald Trump to be held responsible for “obstructing his refusal to comply with a court order”. .
“Rather than obeying a court order, Mr. Trump is trying to escape it,” she said in a press release. The prosecutor therefore calls for “immediate intervention by the court because no one is above the law”.
His move is accompanied by a request “to fine Mr. Trump $10,000 a day for continuing violation of the court order”.
The civil investigation against the Trumps accelerated in January when Letitia James announced that she had gathered “significant evidence suggesting” that the former president and his group had “falsely and fraudulently valued a number of assets” for economic benefits. .
The New York Attorney General suspects the family group of having “fraudulently” overstated the value of certain properties when applying for bank loans and of having understated them with the tax authorities to pay less taxes.
The Trump family accuses Ms James of a ‘political witch hunt’.
This conflict is one of the many disputes that the former president has with the law.
He is also facing a criminal investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office: the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg have been charged with tax evasion. They have pleaded not guilty and the trial is due to begin this year.
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