Donald Trump’s lawyers already have plenty of work to do. After all, the former president has reason to be concerned about an ongoing criminal probe in Georgia, where members of a grand jury are considering evidence about the Republican’s alleged efforts to intervene in the state’s 2020 vote count.
What’s more, as NBC News noted this week, there are at least 10 civil cases pending against Trump, who can no longer use his presidency as an excuse to delay cooperating with the proceedings.
And then, of course, there’s the former president’s controversial business. As regular readers may recall, it was over the summer when prosecutors charged the Trump Organization and its chief financial officer with several felonies, including fraud and tax evasion. A congressional panel recently accused the Trump Organization of providing “misleading information about the financial situation” of his hotel in Washington, D.C.
And according to a new report in The New York Times, the former president’s business is now facing yet another criminal inquiry.
In recent months, the district attorney’s office in suburban Westchester County, N.Y., has subpoenaed records from the course, Trump National Golf Club Westchester, and the town of Ossining, which sets property taxes on the course…. The full scope of the investigation could not be determined, but the district attorney, Mimi E. Rocah, appears to be focused at least in part on whether Mr. Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, misled local officials about the property’s value to reduce its taxes, one of the people said. It would not be the first time Trump was accused of making deceptive claims about a property’s value. A report like this comes with all kinds of caveats. For example, it has not been independently confirmed by MSNBC or NBC News. What’s more, as the Times’ report added, the local district attorney hasn’t raised any specific allegations, at least not yet, and it is “unclear whether the investigation is examining Mr. Trump’s conduct or if it would ultimately lead to any charges.” That said, if the reporting is accurate, it’s yet another potential area of legal jeopardy for the president’s scandal-plagued operation.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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