The attorney general of the State of New York, Letitia James, has summoned this Monday to testify the two eldest children of former President Donald Trump in the framework of the civil investigation into alleged tax crimes of the Trump Organization. James’ office wants to hear the testimonies of Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. “on the valuation of properties owned or controlled” by the tycoon or his conglomerate. The former president was summoned in December to appear under oath this Friday, January 7, but his lawyers are seeking court documents to annul the summons.

At the end of last month, Trump filed a lawsuit in federal court against the prosecutor for an alleged violation of her constitutional rights and because her actions have been “guided solely by political animosity and the desire to harass, intimidate and retaliate against a private citizen whom he considers a political opponent ”. James, a Democrat, has been investigating the Republican’s business for more than two years to determine whether the former president committed tax fraud by filing significantly higher-than-market real estate and property value returns to obtain bank loans.

James investigates four Trump Organization real estate projects and the New Yorker’s failed attempt to buy the Buffalo Bills rugby team. If you find evidence of wrongdoing, you cannot charge Trump with criminal charges, as the investigation is civil. You could only file a lawsuit.

When Trump took office in 2017, he turned his businesses over to Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and Allen Weisselberg, who served as CFO for decades, and who was charged last year with a number of crimes, including tax fraud and grand theft. Weisselberg pleads not guilty and his lawyers will go to court to try to dismiss the charges. Ivanka Trump, for her part, became a presidential adviser during her father’s administration. Eric, the mogul’s third son, and executive vice president of the Trump Organization, appeared before the New York prosecutor’s office in late 2020.

The judicial file published this Monday includes a timetable with the time limits that the former president’s lawyers to try to annul the last subpoenas and those of the prosecutor’s office to respond to those potential motions. James’ efforts coincide with a criminal investigation of Alvin Bragg, the new Manhattan prosecutor [Cyrus Vance, quien lideraba la pesquisa, dejó el cargo a finales del año pasado], to determine whether Trump or his organization misrepresented property values ​​to gain access to potential lenders and evade taxes. Both offices are working together.

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