After an 18-month court battle, prosecutors in Manhattan investigating possible bank and tax fraud have seized former President Donald J. Trump’s tax records.
Tax and financial records that former President Donald J. Trump fought to keep secret for nearly 18 months have been turned over to the Manhattan district attorney’s office, which is investigating possible fraud by Mr. Trump and his company, an official said. The voluminous records, including eight years of personal tax returns, were handed over to prosecutors on Monday, the same day that the Supreme Court rejected Mr. Trump’s final bid to block a subpoena for them. A spokesman for the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., confirmed in an email that the office had received the records just hours after the court issued its brief, unsigned order. Mr. Vance’s investigation, which started more than two years ago, has recently zeroed in on possible tax and bank-related fraud. Investigators are particularly concerned with whether the Trump Organization inflated or otherwise manipulated the value of its properties in order to obtain loans and tax benefits. Mr. Trump has excoriated Mr. Vance and his investigators, saying that their work is just the latest example of a politically motivated campaign to charge him criminally. In a lengthy statement reacting to the Supreme Court decision, he again called the investigation a “fishing expedition” and a “witch hunt,” linking it to his other legal troubles, including a special prosecutor’s investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 election and his two impeachment trials.
