Former U.S. President Donald Trump returned to New York on Thursday, a week after he was criminally charged in a separate case in which he is being questioned in a civil investigation into alleged fraud at his group, the Trump Organization.
• Read more: A high-stakes lawsuit for Fox News after lying about the 2020 US presidential election
• Read more: Trump is suing his ex-lawyer for $500 million
• Read more: Trump ruled that Biden would not run because of his “physical” and “mental” condition
In the civil case, New York State Attorney General Letitia James is suing Donald Trump and his three children for $250 million in damages for the group’s tax and property valuation fraud.
“I will go to the city (New York) to meet with a racist who has leaked that I will be there at 9:30 in the morning,” Donald Trump wrote about the lawyer who was elected under the Democratic banner and who is Afro-American.
Asked by AFP this week, the Attorney General’s services did not confirm the investigation could take place in his offices.
Donald Trump had already been sworn in by a lawyer in August and remained silent. A New York judge has already set a trial for October 2, 2023.
The former president, who hopes to return to the White House in 2024, called the case “ridiculous,” adding, “I’ve been implicated like any other election interference case.”
New York State Attorney General Letitia James accused the Republican billionaire and his children of “intentionally” manipulating the valuations of the group’s assets — which include golf clubs, luxury hotels and other properties — to get better loans from banks or lower taxes.
The case is separate from the criminal indictment last week in which Donald Trump was charged with 34 counts of accounting and tax fraud and paid to cover up three embarrassing cases, including a sexual relationship with actress Stami Daniels, before the 2016 presidential election. Pornography which he always denied.
This is the first time an indictment has been filed against a former US president.
