What’s Going On With New York’s Trump Investigations?

A new virus cropped up in China and a presidential election cycle came and went all while investigators in New York were plugging away at their probes into the Trump Organization’s business practices.

They’re still at it. No charges have yet been brought against former President Donald Trump himself ― nor are they guaranteed to be ― but state-level investigators still have plenty of work on their plates. And as the details are sometimes tough to come by, we have plenty of questions.

Here’s where the investigations stand.

The Manhattan District Attorney’s office started looking into the Trump Organization after Michael Cohen, Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, turned on his boss in 2018. Under Cyrus Vance Jr. and now Alvin Bragg ― Vance chose not to run for reelection last year ― the Manhattan district attorney is currently conducting a wide-ranging criminal investigation.

The big themes are tax evasion and fraud. Questions include whether the Trump Organization, largely a real estate company, improperly inflated the value of its assets in order to secure loans and then deflated the value of its assets in order to pay less tax.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is also majorly involved here. James has been running a civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s business practices, and last year added a criminal investigation to run alongside it. James’ office and Bragg’s office are working closely together on the criminal side of things.

On Thursday, James scored a win: A New York State Supreme Court judge, Arthur Engoron, decided the Trump family must comply with subpoenas issued by the New York Attorney General’s office late last year as part of its civil probe. In his ruling, Engoron ordered Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. to sit for testimony within the next three weeks. All of them had leadership roles to play in the family business at varying points in time.

Of course, the Trumps do not have to answer every question, because the Fifth Amendment gives them the right to stay silent in order to avoid incriminating themselves. Indeed, the one member of the Trump clan who has already testified ― Eric Trump ― pleaded the fifth more than 500 times when he sat under oath for six hours in October 2020, according to court documents.

The Trumps also plan to appeal Engoron’s decision, according to The New York Times. Donald Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, had argued in a hearing Thursday morning that the former president was being prosecuted unfairly for his political views, but the judge rejected the argument.

Engoron said in his ruling that “the impetus for the investigation was not personal animus, not racial or ethnic discrimination, not campaign promises, but was sworn congressional testimony by former Trump associate Michael Cohen that respondents were ‘cooking the books.’” He also noted that James’ office has uncovered “copious evidence of possible financial fraud.”

Last week, another bit of news rocked the Trump Organization when its accounting firm, Mazars USA, said it was dropping the company as a client and that nine years’ worth of financial documents should not be “relied upon.”

Yes. Last summer, a grand jury returned an indictment against longtime Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg, who’s worked for the Trump family since 1973, along with the Trump Organization itself. The charges, brought by Vance, center on an alleged tax evasion scheme spanning from 2005 to 2021.

Prosecutors say the company kept two sets of books: One for internally tracking everything that was actually spent on perks for executives, and one for sharing with tax preparers. Weisselberg is accused of dodging taxes by accepting payment in the form of cars, garage expenses, home renovations and tuition for his family members. He also allegedly concealed the fact that he lived in New York City, thus avoiding city taxes, by living in a Trump-owned property. According to the indictment, Weisselberg accepted indirect compensation totaling some $1.76 million.

As Jennifer Weisselberg, the ex-wife of one of Weisselberg’s sons, explained the arrangement to The New Yorker: “They pay you with apartments and other stuff, as a control tactic, so you can’t leave. They own you! You have to do whatever corrupt crap they ask.”

In November, multiple outlets reported that a second long-term grand jury had been convened for six months to potentially weigh more charges against the Trump Organization.

James’ civil investigation could also lead to legal action in the form of a lawsuit against the Trump Organization or certain executives ― meaning the Trumps could eventually be forced to pay a settlement. According to The Associated Press, court documents say James has until at least April to decide on whether to take legal action.

Bragg does. Or rather, he has a lot of that information.

In February 2021, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump Organization and Mazars USA to hand over eight years of financial records, from 2011 to 2019, including tax returns ― a trove of millions of pages.