Donald Trump has said that the New York state investigations into his business practices are “racist” attacks against him.
He has also claimed that his accounting firm ended its relationship with the Trump Organization after “intimidation” from the authorities.
The former president issued a long statement on Tuesday, slamming New York Attorney General Letitia James and Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg after the Mazars accounting firm announced they would no longer be working with the Trump Organization. Both Ms James and Mr Bragg are Black. Mazars said financial statements covering a decade can’t be “relied upon”.
Financial condition statements from 30 June 2011 until 30 June 2020 have essentially been withdrawn by Mazars. The documents are central to the investigation led by Ms James into allegations that Mr Trump as well as Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr, may have artificially inflated the value of some of their properties to get better loans and other financial advantages.
The investigation led by Mr Bragg is looking into allegations of tax fraud by the Trump Organization and its former Chief Financial Officer Allen Weiselberg, 74, who is set to face trial on charges that he avoided paying taxes on assets of more than $1.7m, which he denies.
In his statement, Mr Trump said Ms James and Mr Bragg should focus on violent crime in the state instead of him and his business practices. He said crime has “gone through the roof” in New York and also mentioned the disputed claims that aides to 2016 Democratic Presidential nominee Hillary Clinton were allegedly “caught spying” on his office.
He claimed the crime was “so grave that it once called for the death penalty as punishment”.
“It doesn’t get any worse than that! After five years of constant bombardment, this political and racist attack must stop. Look to the murderers, drug dealers and rapists instead,” Mr Trump said.
“The actions of the AG and DA, including the Radical Left Westchester County DA who was a Trump hating contributor at MSNBC, reveal the vile and malicious intent that underlies the nonstop barrage of insults and threats aimed at me and the Trump Organization, including their years-long review of over nine million pages of documents that go far beyond the Statute of Limitations,” he added, calling the investigations another “witch hunt”.
Mr Trump claimed that Mazars ended its relationship with the Trump Organization because of “vicious intimidation tactics” by the New York authorities.
“The accounting firm Mazars has been threatened, harassed, and insulted like virtually no other firm has ever been,” Mr Trump said.
“They were essentially forced to resign from a great long-term account by the prosecutorial misconduct of a highly political, but failed, gubernatorial candidate, Letitia James, and the Hillary Clinton run District Attorney’s Office of Manhattan, where crime has reached levels not even thought possible,” he added.
“Mazars, who were scared beyond belief, in conversations with us made it clear that they were willing to do or say anything to stop the constant threat which has gone against them for years,” the former president said. “They were ‘broken’ and just wanted it all to stop. I wish they had the courage to fight it out, but they didn’t, and who can blame them.”
When reached for comment by The Independent, the office of the New York attorney general referred to an earlier statement.
“The evidence continues to mount showing that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading financial statements to obtain economic benefit,” Ms James said. “There should be no doubt that this is a lawful investigation and that we have legitimate reason to seek testimony from Donald J Trump, Donald J Trump, Jr, and Ivanka Trump. We will continue to follow the facts and ensure that no one is above the law.”
The Independent has reached out to the Manhattan DA for comment.
