Manhattan district attorney obtains Trump's long-sought tax records
Washington — The Manhattan District Attorney's Office has obtained former President Donald Trump's tax records, executing a subpoena for the long-sought documents after the Supreme Court declined to shield them from investigators earlier this week.
Danny Frost, a spokesman for District Attorney Cyrus Vance, Jr., confirmed that prosecutors had taken possession of the tax records on Monday, the same day the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Trump's last-ditch legal effort to block prosecutors from obtaining them.
The former president has fought to keep his financial history under wraps for years, and accused prosecutors of pursuing a politically motivated "fishing expedition" after the Supreme Court's order.
Vance's office began investigating Mr. Trump's business dealings in 2018, initially focusing on hush-money payments made to women who claimed to have had affairs with Mr. Trump. Court filings indicate the investigation has since widened to include potential tax and business fraud related to the Trump Organization's valuation of its properties.
Mazars USA, the accounting firm subpoenaed in the case, said after the Supreme Court's move on Monday that it would fulfill "all of our professional and legal obligations."
Filings by Vance's office in the fight over the subpoena indicated that prosecutors are examining wide disparities in how Mr. Trump's company valued properties in its portfolio. For instance, prosecutors wrote in September that in the past decade, Mr. Trump's valuation of the Seven Springs estate in suburban New York ranged from between $25 million and $50 million, to between $261 and $291 million.
Other subpoenas in the probe suggest investigators are scrutinizing the expansive 200-acre property that straddles the affluent New York towns of Bedford, New Castle and North Castle. Ralph Mastromonaco, an engineer who worked on the Seven Springs estate property for Mr. Trump, told CBS News on February 11 that he recently received subpoenas for his work. Mastromonaco said he quickly complied, turning over maps of the 200-acre property, and other documents he produced for the Trump Organization nearly a decade ago.
Mastromonaco's subpoena came weeks after Manhattan investigators sent a subpoena to the town clerk of Bedford. The grand jury subpoena, which was obtained by CBS News, requested documents related to Seven Springs valuations and tax assessments, tax appeals and conservation easements.
