New York attorney general’s office deposing Eric Trump in tax investigation: report

President Trump’s son Eric Trump is being deposed Monday as part of an investigation into whether the value of certain Trump Organization assets was improperly inflated in order to gain tax benefits.

Eric Trump had initially attempted to delay the deposition until after Election Day, citing a busy campaigning schedule, but New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him to comply with the subpoena, stating that he did not have the authority to push back the date and that the court had no reason to work around Election Day.

The assets in question include at least four properties. One is the Seven Springs estate once owned by Washington Post publisher Eugene Meyer. The New York attorney general’s office began the investigation last March when President Trump’s former attorney Michael Cohen alleged in his congressional testimony that his ex-boss had regularly inflated the value of his assets.

Along with Eric Trump’s deposition, documents related to the value of these assets that had previously been withheld were also requested. Any documents obtained during the probe remain sealed.

The deposition is occurring a week after The New York Times published an investigation of President Trump’s taxes. Records obtained by the paper showed that he had used his business losses to avoid paying taxes for 10 of the 15 years before his election and that he had paid only $750 in federal income taxes in both 2016 and 2017.

In a debate last week against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, the president refuted the claims in the article and stated he had paid “millions” in federal income taxes.

That led Biden to repeatedly ask him to release his tax returns. The president responded that he would do so “as soon as it’s finished.”

Trump became the first president in decades to break tradition and not release his tax returns upon being elected in 2016. He has cited an ongoing audit as the reason he has not released the documents, but the IRS has stated that an audit would not prevent him from releasing personal tax information.