New York State Attorney Letitia James wants former US President Donald Trump to testify in her investigation into possible tax evasion by the Trump Organization family group, the Washington Post reported on Thursday.
• Read also: Trump Organization chief financial officer pleads not guilty to tax offense
• Read also: The Trump Organization soon to be found guilty?
Citing sources close to the matter, the daily specifies that Ms. James has requested that the 45th President of the United States come to give his statement in his office in New York on January 7, as part of a civil investigation into offenses alleged taxes from the Trump Organization.
Ms. James, who was in the running to become governor of the state, announced that she had to “continue (her) work” as New York State Attorney and aim for “re-election” to this very political post, in a brief press release not referring to the Trump case.
“A number of important investigations and cases are ongoing and I intend to finish the job. I am a candidate for re-election to finish the job for which New Yorkers elected me, ”wrote the Democrat, who wanted to succeed former Governor Andrew Cuomo, forced to resign this summer after accusations of assault and sexual harassment.
Legally, Letitia James cannot compete for both positions at the same time.
The civil investigation against the Trump Organization is therefore led by Ms. James and by her deputy for Manhattan, the media Cyrus Vance, also an elected Democrat. Mr. Vance will step down on December 31 after ten years as a New York prosecutor.
As part of the investigation into the Trump Organization, its financial director Allen Weisselberg, loyal among the faithful of Donald Trump, had pleaded the 1st not guilty of tax evasion in a Manhattan court.
Mr. Weisselberg is notably accused of having deliberately concealed from the tax authorities, between 2005 and 2021, some 1.7 million dollars in benefits in kind that he received from the Trump Organization, which would have saved him from paying nearly a million dollars in federal and local taxes.
He is also accused of falsely claiming not to be a resident of New York City to avoid taxes.
The Trump Organization is accused of helping to conceal these benefits.
According to Washington Post sources, Ms James wonders about the extent of the fraud, which is said to have “spread to the Trump Organization”.
The former Republican president, who is not personally accused in this investigation, had denounced in July a political “indictment” and a “witch hunt”.
If he refused to come and testify, Letitia James could, according to the Washington Post, force him to appear in court to give his testimony. This is what happened in October 2020 to compel Eric Trump – one of Donald Trump’s sons and one of the leaders of the Trump Organization – to come and testify in the same investigation.
–
