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A New York judge on Thursday agreed to appoint a special investigator to investigate the Trump Administration after prosecutors warned the company was trying to avoid responsibility by shifting financial assets. from the government.
New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who has been repeatedly accused by former President Donald Trump of ruling against him and defying the court, said he would appoint a private investigator in response to New York’s request. Attorney General Letitia James.
“This court finds that the appointment of a special investigator is the most prudent and appropriate method to ensure that there is no fraud or illegality … pending the final decision of this action,” Engoron wrote, adding that defendants should pay the cost of private monitoring. “If the investigator reasonably determines that the defendants have violated this order, the investigator shall immediately report that fact to [Office of the Attorney General]the accused, and this Court,” the judge warned.
Engoron also prohibited the Trump Organization from transferring non-profit assets without giving two weeks’ notice to the court and James’ office.
Trump’s decision to invoke his Fifth Amendment right during his court ruling earlier this year came back to bite him in Thursday’s ruling.
“Although there is no opinion on a single issue, this Court is permitted, and here is urged, to draw an adverse inference from Mr. Trump’s invocation of his Fifth Amendment right … more than 400 moments to answer questions put to him during his release.” Engoron wrote.
The special investigator will “fix” the Trump Administration as the legal battle continues, wrote MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin.
“Figures to encourage Trump and his children,” tweeted Former US Attorney Harry Litman. “Who wants to work?”
Richard Signorelli, a former prosecutor in the Southern District of New York, predict the monitor “is blown away by what he sees going on in the company.”
The order came after James’ office learned that the Trump Organization had created a new entity called “Trump Organization II LLC” on the same day it filed a $250 million fraud lawsuit against and he and his three older children. James added that the company “continues to use methods they knew were wrong or fraudulent.”
“In addition to continuing its past fraud, the Trump Organization is now actively reorganizing its business to avoid previous liability under New York law,” it said. prosecutors in court last month, asking for a special investigator. arranged. The lawsuit, which alleges more than 200 counts of fraud over a decade, seeks to bar Trump and his three older children from running a state-owned company and other penalties.
“Time and time again, the courts have determined that Donald Trump cannot evade the law for personal gain,” James said in a statement Thursday. “Today’s decision makes it impossible for Donald Trump and his companies to continue the fraud we found, and calls for the appointment of a special investigator to investigate compliance at the Trump Organization.”
Trump criticized the decision in a statement published on Social Truth.
“A puppet judge of the New York Attorney General and other sworn enemies of President Trump and the Republican Party have issued a decision that has never been seen before anywhere in America. Communism has come to our shores, “said the former president.
“Businesses will fly to New York, already, for other states and other countries,” he continued. “The jury’s decision, hand-picked today, is more important than ever for the courts in New York and Florida to do justice and stop this lawsuit.”
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Earlier this week Trump filed a separate lawsuit against James in Florida, accusing him of violating his privacy in Florida and seeking to block his civil suit against him and his company. . Several of Trump’s lawyers warned him that the case was “unreasonable and will fail” but he went ahead, according to the New York Times, even though counsel for the Trump Organization was worried that the lawyers would give up. he claims he is “doing something wrong.”
Former U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance dismissed Trump’s complaint that the decision would drive businesses out of the state.
“Indeed, the judge’s decision will improve the business environment in NY for businesses, by eliminating wrongdoers who profit from fraud and by reducing the market for insurance, and those other things,” he said. write on Twitter.
Rubin also disputed Trump’s claim of “Communism”, saying the decision “doesn’t give anything Trump has to the government.”
“None of this is possible but for the AG to present an example of financial fraud that continues to be dangerous even in the strange, magical world of commercial real estate. [the] The prices here are very different and clear,” Rubin wrote.
Ultimately, what Trump says is “communism is looking at the rest of us as equals,” he added. “The AG isn’t sharing his resources; he’s preventing Trump from cheating — and now from transferring — without accountability.”
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