Investigators from New York Attorney General Letitia James to investigate Donald Trump and the finances of the Trump Organization they are looking for documents from a second accounting firm that worked for the company, according to a document filed in a New York state court.
On March 10, James’s office requested that the Trump Organization provide written consent for the tax company RSM US LLP to “disclose tax documents” to the Attorney General. It is unclear what work RSM has done for the company, or how long the company has had the Trump Organization as a client.
An RSM spokesman said in an email that the company could not answer questions about the attorney general’s request.
“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on legal or regulatory issues,” said Kimberly Bartok, a spokeswoman for the company.
The request for RSM documents was sent less than a month after James’s office revealed in a lawsuit that another accounting firm, Mazars USA, had retracted financial statements of a decade of work for the Trump Organization.
A person with knowledge of the investigation confirmed that James’s office made the RSM application. The request was revealed in evidence presented by James’s office during a dispute over a separate dispute related to electronic discovery in the New York Attorney General’s ongoing investigation into the Trump Organization. The exhibit is a March 14 letter to the office of James of Lawrence Rosen, a lawyer for the Trump Organization, in which he cites in a footnote the request for RSM documents, which was previously known as McGladrey LLP.
In the letter, Rosen also states that James’ office “first mentioned the alleged relevance of documents related to McGladrey’s work more than four months ago.”
James’ office declined to answer questions related to his interest in the accounting firm. Rosen wrote in his letter that investigators had not yet issued a subpoena to obtain the information.
Rosen did not respond to questions from CBS News.
RSM has not been charged with the crime and is not the target of James’ investigation.
An RSM executive, David Kautter, was appointed by Trump in 2017 and served as Deputy Secretary of the Treasury for fiscal policy from September 25, 2017 to January 20, 2021. Kautter was also briefly acting commissioner. of the Internal Revenue Service, from November 13, 2017 to September 30, 2018. Kautter, who was a partner in charge of RSM’s national tax division in Washington before joining the Trump administration , returned to the company in August 2021 as a federal specialized tax leader.
There is no indication that Kautter was involved in the company’s work for the Trump Organization or any member of the Trump family.
A Trump spokesman did not answer questions about RSM and James’ investigation.
Trump, his company and his lawyers have repeatedly denied all charges of felony criminal mischief. Trump sued James in Decemberarguing that his investigation should be stopped and alleging that “he had no evidence” and that he “made the allegations from the air.”
Trump called the investigation “unconstitutional” in a Dec. 20 phone call with CBS News. “We are such a damaged and innocent party. It is a shame,” he said.
James’s office is conducting an extensive investigation into civil fraud. He said in a February press release that “evidence continues to show that Donald J. Trump and the Trump organization used fraudulent and misleading financial statements for economic gain.”
In February, a New York State judge ordered Trump, his daughter Ivanka and his son Donald Jr. appear for bowel movements in research. On Monday, they filed an appeal arguing that James, a Democrat, is targeting them out of political animosity toward the former Republican president. They also accused James’s office of conspiring to hand over his statements to a grand jury in Manhattan investigating the Trump Organization.
“Long before the future attorney general could see any evidence or know any facts, Ms. James made her opposition to Donald Trump’s politics and policies a focal point of her campaign and pledged to target Mr. Trump, threatening to sue if he wins, “Trump and Trump administration lawyers wrote in their appeal.
In a press release, James denounced Trump’s “continued efforts to prevent this investigation.”
- In:
- The Trump organization
- Donald Trump
- Letitia James
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