Donald Trump has been asked to give evidence under oath in a fraud investigation into his property business by the New York attorney-general.
Letitia James wants the former president to sit for a deposition on January 7 over suspicions that the Trump Organisation inflated asset values to gain favourable loan terms or minimised them for tax savings. James is an elected Democrat.
The civil inquiry is related to but separate from a three-year criminal investigation of the Trump Organisation’s business practice by Cyrus Vance Jr, the Manhattan district attorney, which James joined in May.
Trump, 75, has not been charged with crimes or accused of wrongdoing and has called the investigations politically motivated. “This is another political witch-hunt,” a spokesman for the Trump Organisation said, calling it “political persecution” that is “illegal, unethical and . . . a travesty to our great state and legal system”.
James also announced that she was suspending her campaign to become New York governor. “I have come to the conclusion that I must continue my work as attorney-general,” she tweeted. “There are a number of important investigations and cases that are under way and I intend to finish the job.”
Advertisement
James, 63, said she would run for reelection as the state’s attorney-general. Vance, also a Democrat, leaves office at the end of the month after 12 years.
In another legal setback yesterday an appeal court rejected Trump’s attempt to withhold White House records from the House of Representatives committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. “Former President Trump has provided no basis for this court to override President Biden’s judgment,” a three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit wrote.
Trump argued that the materials were covered by executive privilege. The court gave Trump 14 days to file an appeal to the Supreme Court.
