Trump Docs Given To Investigators After Contempt Of Court Threat

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Caleb Newton
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Cushman & Wakefield, a real estate firm that’s done significant amounts of high-profile work for Donald Trump, has reportedly reached an agreement with New York state Attorney General Letitia James to release additional documents she’s after.

Cushman was recently held in contempt and slapped with a $10,000-a-day fine for failing to sufficiently comply with the attorney general’s probe. It sounds as though the terms of the new agreement between Cushman and James meant the contempt finding against the company would be temporarily set aside. A statement from Cushman explains:

‘We are pleased to have reached an agreement with the [Office of the Attorney General (OAG)] that relates to an interim stay of the Contempt ruling. Since the beginning of the New York Attorney General’s investigation in 2019, Cushman & Wakefield has endeavored to cooperate with the OAG’s investigation, responding to multiple document subpoenas and eight testimony subpoenas. We will continue to work to produce the documents requested by the OAG by Wednesday, July 13, in accordance with our agreement.’

According to a report from Law&Crime, Cushman may not have to pay anything for the time the contempt finding was in place. “If Cushman & Wakefield provides all of the subpoenaed documents by Wednesday, the attorney general will agree to seek to dissolve the contempt order and will not seek to collect any fines, the company says,” according to the report. As of Monday, there was no publicly available court filing showcasing the agreement Cushman indicated it struck with James, and her team did not immediately respond to an email from Law&Crime asking for comment on the matter.

Cushman conducted appraisals for the Trump company, and valuations of the Trump company’s assets are among the key matters under investigation by James and her team. The Trump company is suspected of presenting artificially adjusted valuations that would have been set to help it obtain financial kick-backs like tax breaks and favorable loan terms. “As outlined in a January 2022 filing by OAG, evidence indicates that the Trump Organization submitted fraudulent or misleading valuations of conservation easements to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), specifically related to Seven Springs (in Westchester County, NY) and Trump National Golf Club, Los Angeles (in Los Angeles County, CA),” a prior press release from the Attorney General’s office explains. “Those valuations were used to obtain tax deductions and involved appraisals issued by Cushman.”

Subpoenas from James’s team for Cushman have targeted documents related to its appraisals for those two Trump properties and a third located at 40 Wall Street in Manhattan. Cushman prepared two appraisals for 40 Wall Street that were hundreds of millions of dollars lower than an appraisal put together by the same team just a few years later that was used in the process of the Trump Organization obtaining a loan. Details about Cushman’s general relationship with the Trump company were also targeted by James.

In theory, there could have been intimidation imposed on personnel at Cushman to prepare valuations more in line with the Trump Organization’s ambitions. A higher valuation could have made the company seem financially better off than it was in reality, while a lower one could’ve lowered tax liabilities. Meanwhile, James’s team is set to soon conduct interviews with Trump himself and two of his adult children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka. They’ll only be testifying after losing a legal fight they waged to block their testimony to James from taking place. James’s investigation is civil in nature, meaning it’s set up to lead to a lawsuit in the event of conclusive findings of misconduct. That hypothetical lawsuit against the Trump company could lead to substantial financial penalties against it if James proves her claims.



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