State Attorney General Letitia James wants former President Donald Trump to testify in connection with a civil fraud probe into his business practices, according to reports Thursday.
James plans to subpoena Trump to answer questions on Jan. 7, two people familiar with the matter told the New York Times.
The news comes the same day James announced she was dropping out of the race for governor of New York.
The AG is reportedly investigating allegations that Trump’s company overvalued its assets to obtain loans and undervalued them for tax purposes, as claimed by former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen during testimony before Congress in 2019.
One person familiar with the investigation said James is probing whether the Trump Organization is “permeated” by widespread fraud, according to the Washington Post, which first reported her plan.
In a statement to the Washington Post, Trump’s company called James’ investigation “another political witch-hunt.” It also noted that she was seeking the Democratic nomination to run for governor next year, having come shortly before James announced she’s dropping that bid.
“The only focus of the New York AG is to investigate Trump, all for her own political ambitions,” the statement said. “This political prosecution is illegal, unethical and is a travesty to our great state and legal system.”
Reached after James announced she was dropping out, a Trump Organization spokesman told the NY Post: “She may want people to believe she has ‘unfinished business,’ but the only reason she got out of the race is because her poll numbers sucked.
“New York is being overrun by violence, children are being shot in Time Square, arsonists are setting Christmas decorations ablaze and homelessness is through the roof yet the only focus of the New York AG is to investigate Trump to try and stop him from being re-elected.”
The plan to subpoena Trump marks a dramatic escalation of James’ probe and comes amid a parallel, criminal probe by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.
“This is not part of the criminal investigation,” a spokesman for outgoing DA Cyrus Vance Jr. told the Times.
— Additional reporting by Carl Campanile