Trump Tower. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office in New York has issued a subpoena to a New York City property tax agency. It is part of an ongoing criminal investigation into a group of companies owned by former President Donald Trump.
Frances Henn, chairwoman of the New York City Tax Commission, confirmed to Reuters on Friday (Feb. 19) that the agency had received the subpoena.
The move suggests that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. is investigating Trump’s valuation of some commercial properties in tax returns and loan documents, and looking for evidence of possible fraud.
Both Vance’s office and lawyers for Trump Group Inc. declined Reuters’ request for comment on the tax commission’s subpoena.
Vance’s office has not publicly disclosed what he is investigating, citing grand jury confidentiality rules. But some details in court documents suggest prosecutors are looking for evidence of possible falsification of records and the existence of insurance and tax fraud.
Vance’s office last month issued subpoenas to local governments in suburban New York City for information about a property Trump owns in Westchester and 158 acres (0.64 square kilometers) of land he donated to the Conservation Land Trust in order to claim an income tax deduction.
Earlier this week, Danny Frost, a spokesman for Vance’s office, revealed that Vance’s office had added prominent former prosecutor Mark Pomerantz to bolster its team to investigate allegations of possible fraud against Trump’s companies, CNN reported.
Separately, New York State Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, is conducting a civil investigation into whether the Trump Group improperly manipulated the value of Trump’s assets in its annual financial statements in order to obtain loans and tax benefits.
The Trump Group says the investigation is politically motivated and earlier accused James of “ongoing harassment.”
Last year, a Trump Group attorney told the news media, “Despite our attempts to cooperate with the investigation in good faith at every turn, the continued harassment of the company by the New York State Attorney General so close to the election (and the filing of motions on the first day of the Republican National Convention) reaffirms that the investigation is entirely political in nature. “
James said in August 2020 that she has been investigating the allegations since Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress in 2019. That investigation has been kept secret for months.
With Trump now out of office, he no longer enjoys the protection of immunity. The criminal conviction of the former president is an unprecedented event in U.S. history. No former president has ever before been charged with a crime, let alone found guilty.
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