New York attorney general seeking Trump deposition in fraud probe: report

New York’s attorney general is seeking a deposition from former President Trump and moving to subpoena him as part of a civil investigation into alleged fraud within the Trump Organization, according to media reports.

The attorney general’s office is planning to issue a subpoena in its own fraud investigation of the Trump organization, separately from the criminal investigation it’s conducting jointly with the Manhattan district attorney’s office, The New York Times reported.

The Washington Post, citing sources close to the investigation, first reported on Thursday that New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) will ask to interview Trump and take his testimony at her office in Albany on Jan. 7.

James and the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office are conducting a separate joint criminal probe into whether Trump lowered property values on his forms for tax agents but raised them to look better for financial lenders.

In the probe, prosecutors are specifically examining a property in Manhattan located at 40 Wall Street. Trump told lenders in 2012 the building was was worth $527 million, but informed tax officials it was actually worth around $16 million. The prosecution team is also looking at inflated valuations at a California golf club and an estate in New York.

The joint criminal investigation overlaps with, but is separate from, James’s civil investigation into potential financial fraud at the Trump’s business. Last year, Eric Trump, the former president’s son and an executive vice president at the family company, sat for an interview with the attorney general’s office as part of the probe.

Attorneys have reportedly collected a mountain of evidence, including financial data, emails and planning documents, according to The Post.

James’s office declined to comment on the investigation. The Hill has reached out to the Trump Organization.

Trump has attacked James’s investigation as politically motivated and intended to bolster her New York gubernatorial campaign. After details of the investigation were publicized last month, the Trump Organization told The Hill it was a “political witch hunt.”

“New York is being overrun by violence, children are being shot in Times Square, homelessness is through the roof — yet the only focus of the New York DA and AG is to ‘get’ Trump,” a spokesperson for the Trump Organization said at the time.

Prosecutors in New York have already charged those close to Trump in a related investigation. The former chief financial officer at the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, has been charged with 15 counts of tax fraud, conspiracy and grand larceny and faces a trial next year.

Updated at 12:15 p.m.