New York AG Joins Criminal Probe Into Trump Organization

FILE- In this Nov. 19, 2019 file photo, New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference at her office in New York. James leads a coalition of states, counties and cities that filed a federal lawsuit against President Donald Trump on Friday, July 24, 2020, over his executive order that would not include people in the U.S. illegally in how congressional districts are redrawn. AP Photo/Richard Drew, File)
FILE- In this Nov. 19, 2019 file photo, New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference at her office in New York. James asked a court Monday, Aug. 24, 2020 to enforce subpoenas into an ... FILE- In this Nov. 19, 2019 file photo, New York State Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference at her office in New York. James asked a court Monday, Aug. 24, 2020 to enforce subpoenas into an investigation into whether President Donald Trump and his businesses inflated assets on financial statements. James filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization, an umbrella group for the Republican president’s holdings, as a respondent along with other business entities. (AP Photo/Richard Drew, File) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Investigators from the New York attorney general’s office are now working alongside the Manhattan district attorney in its ongoing criminal fraud investigation into former President Donald Trump and his company.

The development was disclosed publicly after the attorney general’s office wrote to the Trump Organization telling it that information from its civil inquiry could now be used as part of a criminal investigation. Attorney General Letitia James will continue an ongoing civil probe that could result in a lawsuit or fines but recently informed Trump Organization officials of the criminal component.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for James, said in a statement first reported by CNN. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A. We have no additional comment at this time.”

The parallel investigations have been underway for more than year and James’s office will not be launching an independent criminal investigation.

The sweeping criminal investigation by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance has focused on potential bank and tax fraud involving the former president and the Trump Organization and has increasingly zeroed in on the Trump Org’s longstanding chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. Vance’s office recently subpoenaed documents from Weisselberg’s grandchildren’s private school in the probe.

According to the New York Times, two assistant attorneys general from the attorney general’s office are joining the district attorney’s team in the collaboration, although it is unclear how the pairing will play out.

James will be continuing her civil inquiry, which includes an investigation of some of the same Trump properties under scrutiny in the criminal probe, including his Seven Springs Estate in Westchester County.

Latest News

Notable Replies

  1. “We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for James, said in a statement first reported by CNN. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A. We have no additional comment at this time.”

    Good!

  2. Which Trump spawn will be first to flip?

    Blood or water?

  3. OK, this is good news. The response from Trump will be interesting. He needs to get the election results overturned pretty soon so he can hide behind the desk in the oval office. Let’s hope the stress from these investigations and the Jan 6 commission push him over the edge.

  4. Avatar for jpc jpc says:

    Drip, drip, drip, drip… Federal investigations frequently work slowly, painfully slowly, but thoroughness takes time. Trump and his minions are leaving FL (for the heat supposedly, but from what I see now, not the thermal kind) for NJ, so his “team” can travel more easily to NYC. Let it play out, and let the letter and intent of the law that he’s avoided for so long bit him in his ass.

  5. How long will Allen W. let them go after his family?

    Is he loyal ultimately to the Weisselbergs or to the Trumps?

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

254 more replies

Participants

Avatar for paulw Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for jw1 Avatar for steviedee111 Avatar for teenlaqueefa Avatar for thebigragu Avatar for psudawnc Avatar for thunderclapnewman Avatar for jinnj Avatar for tsp Avatar for jtx Avatar for lizzymom Avatar for castor_troy Avatar for rhs1963 Avatar for luckie Avatar for karlwlewis Avatar for greenman66 Avatar for kenga Avatar for occamscoin Avatar for txlawyer Avatar for zenicetus Avatar for rascal_crone Avatar for emiliano4 Avatar for kovie

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: