Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are subpoenaed in asset probe

Two of former President Donald Trump’s sons have been subpoenaed by New York authorities investigating whether their real estate business manipulated the value of key assets for tax and insurance purposes.

His father’s former associates Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. are expected to file motions to vacate the subpoenas as soon as today, New York Attorney General Letitia James said in a court filing Monday in Manhattan. Donald Trump is also fighting an earlier subpoena, he said.

The Trump Organization has refused to comply with James, who sued in August 2020 to enforce his initial set of seven subpoenas . A judge has repeatedly ruled in their favor, ordering the company to either comply fully or submit to a search of its documents by an outside company.

Last month, Trump sued James in an attempt to block the investigation, accusing her of investigating his Manhattan-based real estate company for political purposes . James, who suspended his candidacy for governor of New York in December, was aiming to get his testimony under oath by January 7.

James began the investigation in 2019 to determine whether the Trump company had been manipulating the value of key assets. Former Trump attorney and fixer Michael Cohen triggered the investigation after he turned over a piece of Trump’s financial records to Congress and testified that his former boss “inflated his total assets when it served his purposes” and “deflated his assets to lower your property taxes. ”

Eric Trump, one of the sons of the former president and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, was deposed by state investigators in October 2020 after fighting in court to delay questioning.

In July, then-Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr, in collaboration with James, charged the Trump Organization and its longtime CFO Allen Weisselberg with a series of crimes related to untaxed benefits that the Executive had received , including the use of luxury cars and apartments. Weisselberg and the company have denied any wrongdoing.

One of the main focuses of James’s investigation has been the Trump Organization’s valuation of Seven Springs, a 212-acre estate in Westchester County, New York . His office has been trying to determine whether the company gave an accurate valuation for the property when it served as the basis for some $ 21.1 million in tax deductions for donating a conservation easement for fiscal year 2015.

Trump’s skyscraper at 40 Wall Street and his hotel in Chicago are among the other properties being scrutinized in the attorney general’s investigation , which overlapped with the Manhattan District Attorney’s extensive investigation into possible bank, mortgage and fraud fraud. prosecutors.