NEW YORK — Former president Donald Trump arrived at the office of the New York attorney general Wednesday morning to give sworn testimony in a long-running civil probe of his business dealings, specifically his representations to lenders and tax agencies about the value of his assets.
In a lengthy statement, Trump denied wrongdoing, accused the U.S. government of unfairly targeting him and said he would refuse to answer questions, citing his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
Trump appeared for the deposition two days after his Mar-a-Lago home and beach club was searched by the FBI as part of a Justice Department probe into missing records that were generated during his presidency and were supposed to be catalogued with the National Archives.
FBI agents executing a court-authorized warrant left the property Monday with about a dozen boxes that were being stored at Trump’s estate. The former president had surrendered about 15 boxes to the archives in January, some of which contained material marked classified.
The FBI searched former president Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club on Aug. 8 as part of an investigation into whether presidential documents were mishandled. (Video: Blair Guild/The Washington Post)
People familiar with the investigation, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss it, said the Justice Department subsequently grew concerned that Trump or his aides had withheld some government items in January and also were not being truthful in their conversations about the material with U.S. authorities.
In announcing the legal action at his Palm Beach, Fla., property, Trump criticized the Justice Department for seeking a search warrant and insisted he had been cooperative with authorities and that there was no need for an official action. The Presidential Records Act mandates that documents like memos, letters, emails and other communications produced during a presidential term be preserved.
Since 2019, Trump has been facing criminal and civil investigations into his business practices at the Trump Organization before he entered the White House. The criminal probe, led by the New York District Attorney’s Office, appears to have lost momentum. The civil inquiry is still proceeding, however, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D).
Trump’s deposition, along with testimony by his daughter Ivanka Trump and son Donald Trump Jr., was postponed because of the July 14 death of Ivana Trump.
Ivanka and Donald Trump Jr., who both served as executives in the family business and worked in the White House, were deposed in recent days, a person familiar with the investigation said. They answered questions, this person said.
Their brother Eric Trump, who was also a lieutenant in the company, invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 500 times when he sat for questioning in October 2020 in the same investigation, according to public disclosures made by James. At that time, the criminal investigation into the business practices of Trump and the Trump Organization was still active.
In a post on Trump’s social media service, Truth Social, early Wednesday, Trump continued his attacks on James’s investigation, calling the Black law enforcement official “racist” and saying he was seeing her “for a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in U.S. History!”
He later posted that he was at her office for the deposition and issued the statement saying he would not answer questions.
James could file a lawsuit against the Trump Organization and its executives should she conclude that their conduct legally amounted to wrongdoing.
Trump has repeatedly accused her of targeting him and his business to score political points — pointing to comments James made on the campaign trail promising to investigate Trump and the Trump Organization.
Lawyers for Trump have said that the valuations practices with which James is concerned are standard in the real estate industry.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) has said a parallel criminal investigation into those practices is still underway. But the two prosecutors leading the investigation resigned in protest earlier this year when they learned that Bragg was not onboard with moving to obtain an indictment. Bragg subsequently appointed a member of his executive team to lead the effort.
The criminal case began under Bragg’s predecessor, Cyrus R. Vance Jr. (D), who did not seek reelection. Bragg took office in January. So far, Trump’s longtime chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, and the Trump Organization have been indicted in connection to an alleged long-running tax avoidance scheme.
Weisselberg and the company have pleaded not guilty and are due in court Friday for pretrial proceedings.
In a separate long-running inquiry involving Trump, a federal appeals court panel in Washington, D.C., ruled Tuesday that a House committee is entitled to review the former president’s tax returns for 2015 to 2020. The three-judge panel rejected several legal arguments by Trump, who has sought for years to keep his financial records private.
The decision was a victory for the House Ways and Means Committee, whose chairman, Rep. Richard E. Neal (D-Mass.), first requested in 2019 that the Internal Revenue Service turn over copies of Trump’s tax returns to the committee. The Treasury Department initially declined, and the issue has been tied up in litigation ever since.
The former president has a week to appeal the ruling before it takes effect. Trump’s attorney Cameron T. Norris, who is handling the appeal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Josh Dawsey and Paul Duggan in Washington contributed to this report.
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