In a response to corrupt con man Donald "Individual 1" Trump's court filing challenging the subpoena of his tax returns, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance suggested that his grand jury investigation into the tax filings will likely involve evidence of bank fraud and other criminal violations by Trump and his organization:
"...New York County prosecutors said that news reports about the president's financial history provide sufficient justification for requesting the extensive amount of information from the accounting firm Mazars in their grand jury investigation.
'In light of these public reports of possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization, there was nothing facially improper (or even particularly unusual) about the Mazars Subpoena, which [was] issued in connection with a complex financial investigation, requesting eight years of records from an accounting firm,' prosecutors wrote in a court filing submitted Monday.
A footnote in the court filing listed three media stories published in 2018 and 2019 about the president's financial history. One of them, a Washington Post story published last year, reported that Trump had inflated his net worth to potential lenders and investors.
Prosecutors also cited a 2018 New York Times investigation that found Trump had employed 'dubious tax schemes' that included 'outright fraud' while managing the Trump Organization, which he still owns, in the 1990s. (our emphasis)Vance's filing makes it clear that the prosecutorial scope extends beyond an examination of his tax records for possible tax evasion, and is looking at the issues raised in the cited media stories. You can read the District Attorney's court filing here.
(image: Orange and orange go together)
