and in the news today..............jail time coming soon.......let me repeat...TODAY"S NEWS
Revelations in New York court underscore Trump's legal peril on multiple fronts
In a push to compel the testimony of former President Donald Trump and two of his children, New York Attorney General Letitia James disclosed a potential game changer late Tuesday in a widening civil investigation of the Trump family business.
State investigators, the attorney general asserted, have "collected significant additional evidence indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions."
Trump family business: New York AG subpoenas Ivanka Trump, Don Jr. in fraud inquiry
The state investigation and a parallel criminal probe by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office are two of the legal battles shadowing the former president.The New York court filing, which the company dismissed as a long-simmering political vendetta, underscored an expanding legal firestorm inching closer to the Trump business and the former president himself.
Beyond New York, Georgia authorities have been building on a months-long criminal investigation into Trump's alleged attempts to interfere in the state presidential vote count. In Washington, a special House committee signaled that it is examining whether Trump's failure to call off a mob of supporters who assaulted the Capitol amounts to criminal conduct that should be referred to the Justice Department for prosecution.
This week, the House committee pushed further into Trump's inner circle, serving subpoenas on the former president's legal team who advanced baseless election fraud theories to overturn the election. Late Wednesday, the Supreme Court added to the former president's troubles when it refused to block the House panel's demand for caches of documents from Trump's last days in the White House that could shed light on his actions and communications during the Capitol riot and the days leading up to the insurrection.
The attorney general's assessment of the evidence against the Trump business represents the most detailed accounting of the legal threat.
"In the past, Trump's approach to any legal trouble has been to brush it off as some sort of political gamesmanship," said Jimmy Gurule, a former Justice Department official in the George H.W. Bush administration. "But these are investigations on multiple levels, examining multiple courses of conduct. These are exceedingly serious matters. The big difference is that he is no longer president, and the mantle of immunity is no longer available to him."
New York looking into Trump properties
In the New York case, James’ office teamed with the Manhattan district attorney to investigate whether there is evidence that Trump, his business organization and members of his family violated the law by exaggerating or undervaluing the worth of various properties to obtain loans, lower taxes and other financial advantages.
The probe was sparked by congressional testimony in 2019 by Michael Cohen, a former Trump lawyer who said his ex-boss changed valuations virtually the way other people changed socks.
“It was my experience that Mr. Trump inflated his total assets when it served his purposes, such as trying to be listed among the wealthiest people in Forbes, and deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes," said Cohen, who pleaded guilty to unrelated charges and served a prison sentence.
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James’ office said Tuesday that investigators had not decided whether to proceed with legal allegations against Trump. The investigators notified the Trump Organization last year that the probe, initially civil in nature, had become a criminal matter.
One filing submitted in Manhattan Supreme Court late Tuesday said investigators “obtained documents and testimony from numerous witnesses that were involved in creating and disseminating the misleading statements and omissions.”