New York AG: Trump defense of financial statements contradicts court filing

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on Wednesday criticized former President Trump’s comments on his company’s financial statements, which she said contradict the former president’s own lawyers’ court filing.

“It is not unusual for parties to a legal proceeding to disagree about the facts,” the attorney general’s office said in a letter filed in the state’s court, according to NBC News.

“But it is truly rare for a party to publicly disagree with statements submitted by his own attorneys in a signed pleading — let alone one day after the pleading was filed,” the letter added.

James is leading an investigation into whether the Trump Organization inflated the value of real estate assets to get bank loans and reduced the values to lower taxes. Her comments on Wednesday were in reference to the former president’s statement on Tuesday that it was a “sham investigation,” NBC reported.

“Remember when the attorney general and or District Attorney say they think my financial statements may be high, I don’t even include these branding numbers in them, which is far more than any discrepancy they may have,” Trump wrote, adding that investigations should be focused on 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and “murderers, drug dealers and rapists.”

Ahead of Trump’s statement, a letter from his longtime accounting firm, Mazars USA, said it could no longer vouch for the financial statements it had prepared for the Trump Organization and ended its business relationship with the company.

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron is expected to hear arguments on Thursday about whether subpoenas issued by James for the testimony of Trump as well as two of his children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, will be enforced, the outlet added.

The Manhattan district attorney is also conducting a criminal case, which James joined in May, into the same issue.

The Hill has reached out to the Trump Organization for comment.