Leticia James accused of stalking him politically
Trump and his children charged in New York with tax evasion
Attorney General Letitia James is prosecuting members of the Trump family over a range of illegal practices.
AFP
The accusations are chasing Trump wherever he goes.
Reuters
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New York State Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against former US President Donald Trump and three of his children yesterday, as part of an investigation into the tax practices of his "Trump Organization" group.
Leticia James, a Democrat who has been in a legal battle against the billionaire for years, announced that she is seeking $250 million in damages in the name of the state of New York and barring Trump and his children Donald Jr, Ivanka and Eric from running companies.
"We are suing Donald Trump for breaking the law ... for personal gain, for his family and for his company," she told reporters.
This lawsuit is added to the legal troubles facing Trump, as the judiciary is investigating his involvement in efforts to overturn the results of the presidential elections, in which Joe Biden defeated him in 2020, and his role in the violent attack launched by his supporters on the headquarters of Congress on the sixth of January 2021, and finally his possession of documents from The presidential archive was confiscated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) during a raid conducted at its headquarters in Florida "Mar-a-Lago".
In this latest file, a federal court decided on Wednesday in favor of the Ministry of Justice, allowing it to continue reviewing some of the confiscated documents, which are about 100 documents classified as “secret.”
This ruling constituted a setback for the former president, after the Justice Department approved his request to appoint an independent expert to review thousands of documents seized by the FBI, ending a dispute that has so far prevented federal investigators from scrutinizing the seizures.
Trump does not yet face any criminal prosecution in any of these cases, at a time when he is explicitly discussing the possibility of running for the 2024 elections.
Trump apartment in New York
Leticia James said the complaint to the New York State Supreme Court "proves that Donald Trump has inflated the net worth (of his assets) into billions of dollars, to get rich illegally, to deceive the system, as well as to deceive us all."
She explained that he "repeatedly and continuously manipulated" the value of his assets in order to "incite banks to give the Trump Organization loans on better terms", and "to pay less taxes", as well as "to induce insurance companies to give him coverage to a higher level, with lower premiums."
"In short, he lied to get big financial benefits," she said.
On his social network, Truth Social, Trump denounced a "new vicious campaign", accusing Leticia James of political persecution.
His son Eric Trump, in his capacity as executive vice president of the Trump Organization, wrote on Twitter: "Lettisha James is the most corrupt attorney general in the history of the United States," and accused her of "running a campaign based on a promise to legally attack my father...Look at the outcome."
The attorney general's office drew up a list of the disputed assets, including golf courses, Trump Tower in New York, and the Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, in a 222-page complaint that also targets former Trump Organization chief financial officer Alan Weiselberg. and its financial auditor, Jeffrey McConnie.
In the criminal part of the case, Allen Weisenberg pleaded guilty to the Manhattan District Attorney's office on 15 counts of embezzlement and tax evasion regarding $1.76 million in undisclosed proceeds between 2005 and 2021.
The Trump Organization is scheduled to be prosecuted for the same facts as a legal person in a trial that begins on October 24.
Leticia James mentioned Trump's three-story apartment in Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in New York City, explaining that the value of the apartment was declared based on an area of 2,700 square meters, which is in fact three times its actual area of 1,000 square meters, which led to an estimate of its value. $327 million.
Business ban
She added that her office is seeking to fine the former president 250 million dollars, in addition to preventing him and his family from "permanently running business in New York" and "from being involved in any transaction to purchase commercial real estate in New York, or requesting loans with any financial institution."
It also referred the file to the criminal justice system and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), which is tasked with collecting taxes.
The investigation was opened in March 2019, after testimony by one of Trump's former personal attorneys, Michael Cohen, before Congress in Washington.
After months of strife, Donald Trump testified under oath in August before the attorney general, but he used his right not to answer questions.
The complaint filed with the New York State Supreme Court proves that Donald Trump inflated his net worth by billions of dollars, to illegally enrich and deceive the system.
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