NEW YORK — President Donald Trump lied about seemingly everything related to his business empire, from the value of his properties around the world to “objective facts” like the size of his penthouse in Trump Tower, Attorney General Letitia James charged in an explosive 115-page petition.
New York State’s top prosecutor said that she’d found “significant evidence” of fraud at the Trump Organization. The misleading statements to banks, the IRS and other government agencies were “part of a pattern to suggest that Mr. Trump’s net worth was higher than it otherwise would have appeared,” the petition charged.
The document, filed late Tuesday, is a dramatic escalation of James’ civil investigation of the Trump Organization, which began three years ago. The filing came in response to efforts by Trump and his children to avoid being questioned by the AG’s office under oath.
Donald Trump Jr. tweeted that James is “America’s most corrupt AG.”
“This is nothing more than political retribution from her on behalf of the entire Dem Party. She should be disbarred!” he wrote.
The petition alleges that the former president, Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump all played a role in serial lies to financial institutions and oversight agencies.
Trump Jr. had “authority over numerous financial statements containing misleading asset valuations” since 2017, the petition alleged.
Ivanka Trump “caused misleading financial statements to be submitted to Deutsche Bank and the federal government,” the petition states.
And Trump himself “had ultimate authority over a wide swath of conduct by the Trump Organization involving misstatements to counterparties, including financial institutions, and the Internal Revenue Service,” the document charges.
Eric Trump, who was questioned under oath by James’ office for six hours, invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination 500 times during the sit-down, according to the petition.
The misrepresentations inflated the value of Trump properties, including golf clubs in Scotland and Westchester, as well as two Trump buildings in the city, the AG said.
The company routinely said that properties were worth far more than their own accountants’ assessments, the attorney general charges.
In 2011, for example, the Trump Organization said that the Trump Park Avenue building’s unsold apartments were worth nearly $300 million, while their own appraiser put the figure “roughly six times” lower, the filing says.
Even statements about the size of Trump’s triplex apartment in Trump Tower were allegedly bogus. Trump claimed it was 30,000 square feet. The AG says it is actually 10,996 square feet.
“We have uncovered significant evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading asset valuations on multiple properties to obtain economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions for years,” James said in a statement.
The Trump Organization responded that the filing was a sign that James “has no case.”
“The only one misleading the public is Letitia James. She defrauded New Yorkers by basing her entire candidacy on a promise to get Trump at all costs. ... Her allegations are baseless and will be vigorously defended,” the company said in a statement.
