New York court sets tax fraud trial date for Trump and his 3 children

Washington:

Donald Trump and his three eldest children will face trial late next year in a civil lawsuit brought by the New York attorney general that accused them of fraud, a judge ruled Tuesday.

Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Angrone set a hearing date for October 2, 2023, in the case, which alleges that Trump and his family members falsified the value of properties to enrich themselves.

The trial – and the host of criminal, civil and congressional investigations facing Trump – will likely complicate the former president’s second term in office, which he announced last week.

The date, which Trump’s lawyers may try to delay, would come near the start of the primary season for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.

Top New York prosecutor Letitia James sued Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump and the Trump Organization in September, alleging they lied to tax collectors, lenders and insurers for years.

She says she made false statements of Trump’s net worth and false asset valuations “in order to obtain and satisfy loans, obtain insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes.”

James, a Democrat, has requested that Trump pay at least $250 million in penalties – an amount he said was fraudulently made – and that his family be banned from running businesses in the state.

His office does not have the power to file criminal charges in the case.

Trump, 76, says the lawsuit is politically motivated. He has repeatedly tried to dismiss it.

– Tax Returns –

He suffered another legal blow on Tuesday when the Supreme Court cleared the way for him to turn over his tax returns to a committee of the Democratic-majority House of Representatives.

Unlike presidents since the 1970s, Trump refused to release the records while in office and took the courts to block Congress’s request.

That legal battle appeared to reach the end of the road when the judges ruled, without comment, that the returns should be referred to the House Ways and Means Committee.

The committee is seeking tax returns for 2015 to 2020 from Trump and his related business entities.

Submission of returns to the Committee does not mean that they will become publicly available.

The move leaves only a few weeks left in the current Congressional term, and Republican lawmakers would have taken over the House in January after winning a slim majority in the Nov. 8 midterm elections.

Although the Supreme Court was overhauled by Trump, its justices have never ruled in his favor in this area, specifically authorizing the transfer of his tax records and business documents to the Manhattan district attorney’s office in 2020 .

Manhattan prosecutors have accused the Trump Organization of concealing compensation paid to top executives between 2005 and 2021.

Trump also faces legal scrutiny for his efforts to overturn the results of the November 2020 election and the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by his supporters.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)