New York attorney general questions Eric Trump under oath in investigation into whether the Trump Organization inflated assets to get tax benefits
Eric Trump has answered questions from New York investigators as part of an ongoing civil probe into whether the value of Trump Organization assets were inflated to gain tax benefits.
Monday's virtual deposition was spearheaded by the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, who launched the investigation into the First Family's assets last year.
Eric Trump, the president's second son and executive vice president of Trump Organization, attended the deposition remotely.
Eric Trump participated in a deposition remotely on Monday as part of an ongoing investigation into the Trump Organizations financial dealings
After Donald Trump was elected president in November 2016, he announced that he would not be involved in day-to-day operations of the Trump Organization but would leave the responsibilities to his adult sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
Details regarding the types of questions and how long the deposition took were not immediately disclosed, per the Associated Press.
A judge had given Eric Trump until Wednesday to comply with a subpoena for his testimony in the investigation after rejecting an effort to delay it until after the November 3 presidential election.
The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James (pictured) did not provide details about the types of questions Eric Trump answered
After President Trump (left) won the 2016 election, he placed Eric Trump and Don Jr. in charge of day-to-day operations concerning the Trump Organization
James, a Democrat, had sought a judicial order to enforce the subpoena after Eric Trump's attorneys abruptly canceled a July interview with investigators.
In addition to Eric Trump's deposition, investigators have requested documents related to the assets in question that had previously been withheld.
The attorney general's probe is civil rather than criminal in nature. So far, no claims that any law was broken have been made.
President Trump has accused James and New York's Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of 'harassing all of my New York businesses in search of anything at all they can find to make me look as bad as possible.'
James began investigating potential fraud in Trump's business dealings in March 2019 after the president's longtime personal lawyer Michael Cohen told Congress that Trump had repeatedly inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms for loans and insurance coverage.
Numerous properties were noted in the investigation, including some that were mentioned by Cohen.
Four of them were the Seven Springs estate in Bedford, New York; the Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago; the Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles; and the 40 Wall Street building in Manhattan
At lease four properties are involved in the investigation, including the Seven Springs estate in Bedford, New York (pictured)
The Trump International Hotel and Tower in Chicago (left) and the 40 Wall Street building in Manhattan (right) were the subject of subpoenas
The Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles (pictured) was also mentioned in the ongoing investigation
The deposition came one week after The New York Times published an explosive investigation into President Trump's taxes.
The publication reported, per tax documents, that President Trump had avoided paying for 10 of 15 years before the election. It also reported he only paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and 2017.
During the first presidential debate, Trump denied these claims and declared he had previously paid 'millions' in federal income taxes.
President Trump's financial dealings became the subject of nationwide attention after he became the first president in decades to not release his tax returns.
He previously argued that he did not disclose the information due to an ongoing audit, but the IRS has said that would not prevent him from sharing his tax information.
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