Investigators from the New York attorney general’s office are now working alongside the Manhattan district attorney in its ongoing criminal fraud investigation into former President Donald Trump and his company.
The development was disclosed publicly after the attorney general’s office wrote to the Trump Organization telling it that information from its civil inquiry could now be used as part of a criminal investigation. Attorney General Letitia James will continue an ongoing civil probe that could result in a lawsuit or fines but recently informed Trump Organization officials of the criminal component.
“We have informed the Trump Organization that our investigation into the organization is no longer purely civil in nature,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for James, said in a statement first reported by CNN. “We are now actively investigating the Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan D.A. We have no additional comment at this time.”
The parallel investigations have been underway for more than year and James’s office will not be launching an independent criminal investigation.
The sweeping criminal investigation by Manhattan district attorney Cy Vance has focused on potential bank and tax fraud involving the former president and the Trump Organization and has increasingly zeroed in on the Trump Org’s longstanding chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg. Vance’s office recently subpoenaed documents from Weisselberg’s grandchildren’s private school in the probe.
According to the New York Times, two assistant attorneys general from the attorney general’s office are joining the district attorney’s team in the collaboration, although it is unclear how the pairing will play out.
James will be continuing her civil inquiry, which includes an investigation of some of the same Trump properties under scrutiny in the criminal probe, including his Seven Springs Estate in Westchester County.
