NEW YORK (AP) — New York’s attorney general has sent a subpoena to the Trump Organization for records related to consulting fees paid to Ivanka Trump as part of a broad civil investigation into the president’s business dealings, a law enforcement official said Thursday.
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The New York Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that a similar subpoena was sent to President Donald Trump’s company by the Manhattan district attorney, which is conducting a parallel criminal probe.
The Associated Press could not immediately independently confirm the district attorney’s subpoena but the one sent by Attorney General Letitia James was described by an official briefed on the investigation who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The records requests followed recent reporting in The Times, based partly on two decades’ worth of Trump’s tax filings, that the president had reduced his company’s income tax liability over several years by deducting $26 million in consulting fees as a business expense.
Records strongly suggested, The Times reported, that $747,622 of those fees had been paid to Ivanka Trump, the president’s daughter, through a company she owned at a time when she was also a Trump Organization executive.
If true, that wouldn’t necessarily pose a problem for Ivanka Trump herself, as long as she paid income tax on the consulting payments, which she reported publicly.
It could, however, raise questions about whether the Trump Organization’s related tax deductions were allowable. The Internal Revenue Service has, in the past, pursued civil penalties over large consulting fee write-offs it found were made to dodge tax liability.
The Times wrote that there was no indication Ivanka Trump is a target of either the state’s or the city’s investigation.
“This is harassment pure and simple,” she said on Twitter late Thursday. “This ‘inquiry’ by NYC democrats is 100% motivated by politics, publicity and rage. They know very well that there’s nothing here and that there was no tax benefit whatsoever. These politicians are simply ruthless.”
The Trump Organization’s lawyer, Alan Garten, and its media relations office didn’t immediately return messages Thursday.
James and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., both Democrats, are both conducting wide-ranging inquiries into Trump’s business affairs.
Both investigations are at least partly related to allegations, made in news reports and by President Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, that Trump had a history of inflating the value of some assets to impress banks and business partners, but lowering that value when seeking tax benefits.
Vance has been involved in a long court battle seeking access to Trump’s tax filings as part of the investigation.
I am sure this has a perfectly innocent explanation and that the Trump family will be happy to provide it.
Just like the phony Trump non-profit which was a form of tax evssion and obvious misuse of funds according to the law, this common white collar grifter got caught again. He has the ethics and morals of a NYC sewer rat. And he can’t be pardoned from all his state crimes. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.
At the risk of giving away my age, this reminds me of the lawsuit that actor James Garner won (at least in the sense that the studio eventually settled) for his share of the profits in his then-hit TV show The Rockford Files. The studio cheated him (and others who were too scared to sue) out of their rightful share of profits by shifting profits from one entity to another. So the studio would, for example, charge a distribution fee for the show. The fee was money taken away from the series and went to the distribution company. But even the judge at the trial was openly shocked at the huge amount of money involved in this alleged distribution fee – way above any “normal” industry standard (the obvious judge’s leanings is probably what led the studio to settle).
But here is my point. Why wasn’t shifting all this money (which even a judge had proclaimed as way over the top) not considered tax evasion by the studio – as the money is a tax deduction reduces tax payable because it reduces “profit”?
I think I know what agent orange is trying to do. He’ll cause so many problems for Biden that Biden will cave on him getting prosecuted by NY AG. The one term loser will do anything and everything to get the Feds and NY AG off his back.
and of course the Feds will be investigating Hunter Biden and the entire Biden family, right?????
And yes the witchhunt will continue till the day he dies .
You guys got your prize Biden no luz up shoin. Time to move on and heal
From where did these guys get access to “two decades’ worth of Trump’s tax filings”? Aside from that, $747,622 out of $26 million seems a bit petty compared to the amounts shown on Biden’s laptop.
But how is paying out money dodging tax? Normally paying out to an off-shore entity that is in a different jurisdiction not subject to US tax dodges taxes. Ivanka was not off-shore. Just what tax was dodged?
But perhaps more to he point, I have seen reported on independent sites that contrary to “a company she owned at a time” it was a company that she co-owned. Perhaps the company had employees (or at least other partners) that did the consulting work?
When will the corrupt NY AG be investigating the NYT for their illegal receiving of copies of Trump’s tax returns.