#New York AG reveals Trump Organization probe is now ‘criminal’

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ investigation of the Trump Organization is criminal in nature, her office revealed Tuesday.

James’ office had been conducting a civil investigation of former President Donald Trump’s company.

“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” a spokesperson for the Attorney General said, in a statement.

“We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA. We have no additional comment at this time.”

Representatives from James’ office and the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to requests for comment from the Post. A spokesperson for Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance declined to confirm or comment on the nature of the investigation.

James has been investigating the Trump Organization since 2019 after Trump’s onetime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, testified to Congress that Trump exaggerated the value of his financial assets in order to help score more favorable terms on loans and insurance policies. Cohen is serving the remainder of a three-year prison sentence under federal house arrest after pleading guilty to tax evasion and campaign finance violations.

In the beginning of the investigation, James subpoenaed Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank for records of business dealings involving the Trump Organization, including Trump’s failed attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills in 2014.

Eric Trump, the former president’s second son and the executive vice president of the Trump Organization, gave evidence to James’ investigators in October of last year after a judge shot down his attempt to postpone doing so until after the November presidential election.

Investigators previously issued seven subpoenas for documents and testimony, including from Eric Trump, relating to four Trump properties across the US, including Seven Springs Estate, the family’s 212-acre compound in Westchester County.

Meanwhile, Vance’s office is looking into allegations of insurance and bank fraud by the Trump organization.

In February, The Wall Street Journal reported that Vance’s investigators were eyeing nearly $300 million in loans taken out by Donald Trump on the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, the Trump International Hotel and Tower at Columbus Circle, Trump Plaza on the Upper East Side and a skyscraper in the Financial District. According to the Journal, those loans were all made to Trump by companies connected to Ladder Capital Corp., a New York-based real estate investment firm that has loaned Trump more than $280 million since 2012.

Last year, prosecutors requested eight years’ worth of financial records from the company’s accounting firm, Mazars USA LLP.

Trump and the Trump Organization has denied any wrongdoing, with the former president describing the probe in August 2020 as a “continuation of the worst witch hunt in American history.”

With Wires