New York state Attorney General Letitia James (D) has filed a court motion seeking to force the compliance of global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield with her ongoing civil investigation into the Trump family business, otherwise known as the Trump Organization. James subpoenaed Cushman & Wakefield, but the firm failed to comply with James’s demands for information regarding its work for the Trump company, including brokerage and appraisals. James’s Trump investigation has focused on issues including his business’s apparent falsification of its financial condition in statements to interests including potential lenders. She previously revealed her civil investigation has turned up evidence “indicating that the Trump Organization used fraudulent or misleading asset valuations to obtain a host of economic benefits, including loans, insurance coverage, and tax deductions.”
Rep. Liz Cheney on Jan. 6 to CNN: "It's definitely clear that what President Trump was doing. What a number of people around him were doing. That they knew it was unlawful. They did it anyway."
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 11, 2022
James is seeking information from Cushman & Wakefield regarding its work tied to Trump-owned properties including the Seven Springs Estate, Trump National Golf Club in Los Angeles, and 40 Wall Street in Manhattan. Cushman’s appraisals for Trump properties have at timed wildly varied — between 2010 and 2012, it pinned the value of the Trump Organization’s interest in 40 Wall Street between $200 million and $220 million, and then in 2015, the firm produced an appraisal for a particular lender pinning the value at $550 million. Providing higher appraisals to lenders could help the company look financially better off and thereby assist it with obtaining favorable loan terms. James, meanwhile, remarked as follows:
‘Cushman & Wakefield’s work for the Trump Organization is significant to our ongoing investigation into Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial practices. There should be no doubt that information about Cushman’s appraisal work for the Trump Organization is relevant to our efforts and that Cushman — like any other party — cannot defy a lawful subpoena because no one is above the law.’
No one is above the law, which is why Cushman & Wakefield cannot defy our lawful subpoena. ⁰
We will not be deterred in our efforts to continue this investigation.— NY AG James (@NewYorkStateAG) April 8, 2022
There’s been widely shared reporting about questions over a valuation Trump’s company employed for a conservation easement at its Seven Springs Estate property, which is in Westchester County, New York. James has laid out — reiterating on the occasion of this push for information from Cushman & Wakefield — that problems with the company’s conservation easement valuations extend from there. The aforementioned Trump-owned Los Angeles property also featured a deceptively valued conservation easement — and higher-than-accurate valuations of conservation easements could lead to unearned tax benefits. Cushman was also involved in appraisals connected to these faulty valuations of conservation easements. As James’s investigation proceeds, she is also continuing to pursue testimony from former President Trump and two of his adult children, Ivanka and Donald Jr. As summarized by The New York Times, James “said that by questioning [Donald, Don Jr., and Ivanka], she would be able to determine who was responsible for the misstatements and omissions that the organization made in its financial documents.”
A new State Department report says the Trump White House and administration failed to provide a full list of the gifts that foreign governments gave Trump, Mike Pence, and other officials in 2020.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 10, 2022
Recently, James also launched a push to hold the ex-commander-in-chief in contempt of court and fine him $10,000 a day as long as his company’s failure to comply with a subpoena demanding a range of documents continues. James’s investigation is civil in nature, so even in the event of a conclusive determination of violations, criminal charges would not be on the metaphorical horizon, but the probe could result in a sweeping lawsuit targeting Trump’s company. In Manhattan, the office of District Attorney Alvin Bragg is apparently continuing its criminal investigation of the Trump company targeting issues related to those isolated in James’s civil probe. Bragg sustained a largely public falling out with two prosecutors who’d been working on the case, but he recently insisted that in “the long and proud tradition of white-collar prosecutions at the Manhattan D.A.’s Office, we are investigating thoroughly and following the facts without fear or favor.”
NBC News: The New York Attorney General is asking a judge to compel real estate firm Cushman and Wakefield to provide documents on a series of appraisals they did for Trump's company, as part of the AG's civil probe of Trump and his business court documents show. @NBCNews
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) April 9, 2022
