Image: Donald Trump, American Red Cross National Headquarters, Washington, DC, July 30 2020. Source: Tia Dufour / Official White House Photo.
By Karen Freifeld
(Reuters) – The Manhattan district attorney’s investigation involving U.S. President Donald Trump is not limited to so-called hush-money payments made to two women in 2016 by his former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen, according to a court filing on Monday.
The investigation is related to “alleged insurance and bank fraud by the Trump Organization and its officers,” among other things, Manhattan District Cyrus Vance said in seeking to dismiss Trump’s challenge to a subpoena for eight years of his personal and corporate tax records.
A week ago, Trump made his latest bid to quash Manhattan Vance’s subpoena, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled the president was not immune from state criminal probes.
In his second amended complaint, filed in federal court in Manhattan on July 27, Trump argued the subpoena was “wildly overbroad” and was issued “bad faith.”
Vance, in responding to the claim the subpoena was overbroad, said Trump’s argument “rests on the false premise that the grand jury’s investigation is limited to so-called ‘hush-money’ payments made by Michael Cohen” on Trump’s behalf in 2016.
Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign violations tied to hush money payments to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels and former model Karen McDougal, who claimed they had affairs with Trump, which he denies.
In Monday’s filing, Vance notes public allegations of possible criminal activity at the Trump Organization dating back over a decade.
“This possible criminal activity occurred within the applicable statutes of limitations, particularly if the transactions involved a continuing pattern of conduct,” the court papers say.
Vance last August issued the grand jury subpoena to Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars USA, for the tax records of Trump and his family’s real estate business.
Vance urged the court to dismiss Trump’s latest challenge to the subpoena “without delay.”
Reporting by Karen Freifeld, Editing by David Gregorio and Nick Zieminski.
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Source: Reuters
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