Real estate company must comply with New York AG’s Trump investigation and court rules

NEW YORK, June 16 (Reuters) – Real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield PLC (CWK.N) must comply with subpoenas from New York State Attorney General Letitia James in her civil investigation on former US President Donald Trump, an appeals court has heard. Thursday.

James’ investigation examines whether Trump and his family business, the Trump Organization, deceived banks and tax authorities about the value of his assets to obtain financial benefits such as cheap loans and tax breaks.

In April, James obtained a court order to force Cushman to comply with subpoenas for records that would help determine whether appraisals he conducted for several Trump properties, such as the Seven Springs estate in the county of Westchester in New York and 40 Wall Street in Manhattan, were fraudulent. or misleading. Read more

Cushman appealed the decision, calling James’ investigation “too intrusive”. The appeals division of the main New York state trial court on Thursday denied Cushman’s appeal and ended a temporary stay on the enforcement of the subpoena.

Spokespersons for Cushman and James’ office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Cushman had previously said he stood by his job and that suggestions that the company was not cooperating in good faith with James were “false”.

The decision adds to a string of recent victories for James over Trump’s efforts to derail the investigation. The New York State Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that Trump and two of his adult children, Donald Trump Jr. and Ivanka Trump, must testify under oath beginning July 15. read more

It came after a federal judge in Albany last week dismissed a lawsuit Trump had brought against James to end the investigation on the grounds that he believed James, a Democrat, was using the investigation more than three years to advance his political career. Read more

Trump, a Republican, denies wrongdoing and calls the investigation a politically motivated witch hunt.

Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Additional reporting by Karen Freifeld; Editing by Chris Reese

Our standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.