(New York) New York State Attorney Letitia James wants former US President Donald Trump to testify in her investigation into possible tax evasion by the family group Trump Organization, said Thursday the Washington post.
Citing sources close to the case, the daily specifies that Mr.me James requested that the 45e President of the United States is coming to give his testimony in his New York office on January 7, as part of a civil investigation into alleged tax crimes by the Trump Organization.
PHOTO RICHARD DREW, AP
New York State Attorney Letitia James.
Asked by AFP, the spokesperson for the prosecutor, Fabien Levy, refrained from any comment at this stage.
1er Last July, Allen Weisselberg, CFO of the Trump Organization and loyal to Donald Trump’s faithful, pleaded not guilty to tax evasion in a Manhattan court.
Mr. Weisselberg is notably accused of having deliberately withheld from the tax authorities, between 2005 and 2021, some $ 1.7 million in benefits in kind that he received from the Trump Organization, which would have saved him from paying close to ‘$ 1 million in federal and local taxes.
He is also accused of having wrongly claimed not to be a resident of New York City, to avoid taxes.
The Trump Organization is accused of helping to cover up these benefits.
According to the sources of Washington post, Mme James wonders about the extent of the fraud, which would have “spread to the Trump Organization”.
The former Republican president, who is not personally accused in this investigation, denounced in July a political “indictment” and a “witch hunt”.
If he refused to come and testify, Letitia James could, according to the Washington post force him to appear in court to give his testimony. This is what happened in October 2020 to force Eric Trump – one of Donald Trump’s sons and one of the leaders of the Trump Organization – to come and testify in the same investigation.
The investigation against the Trump Organization is being led by the New York State Attorney and her Deputy for Manhattan, Cyrus Vance, two elected Democrats. Mme James is in the running for state governor and Mr. Vance will step down on December 31 after ten years as a New York attorney.