9-17-2022
Trump's former accounting firm turns over docs to Congress.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform has begun receiving documents from Mazars USA, which was Donald Trump's longtime accounting firm before it severed ties.
"After a yearslong legal fight, the House Oversight Committee has received a first trove of documents from the firm, which recently entered into a legal settlement agreeing to produce a range of financial documents from several years before Mr. Trump took office and during his early presidency.
Mazars said in February it could no longer stand behind a decade of annual financial statements it had prepared for the Trump Organization,"
The New York Times reported Saturday.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney, who chairs the committee, said the company had "sent us a number of documents."
"We're reviewing them," she added. “Mazars is being very cooperative.”
Maloney, who will be leaving Congress in January after losing a primary against House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-NY), said her committee was the only one to obtain the documents.
"The Oversight Committee has been in a lengthy struggle to obtain financial documents from Mr. Trump as part of its investigation into allegations of conflicts of interest, inadequate financial disclosures and violations of the emoluments clauses of the Constitution, which bar the president from receiving profits from a domestic or foreign government other than his official compensation," the newspaper reported.
"In 2019, Michael D. Cohen, Mr. Trump’s former personal attorney, testified before the committee that Mr. Trump’s financial statements had falsely represented the former president’s assets and liabilities and that Mr. Trump had 'inflated his total assets when it served his purposes' and, at other times, 'deflated his assets to reduce his real estate taxes.'"
When Mazars severed ties with Trump, it warned past statements about Trump's financial condition "should no longer be relied upon."
"This month, the committee reached a settlement with Mr. Trump and Mazars that allows the panel to obtain key financial documents," the newspaper reported.
"The agreement states that Mazars must turn over any documents between 2014 and 2018 that indicate any false or undisclosed information about Mr. Trump’s assets, income or liabilities; communications related to any potential concerns that financial information provided by Mr. Trump’s companies was inaccurate;
documents from November 2016 to 2018 related to the Old Post Office Building, a federal property in Washington that Mr. Trump’s company converted into a hotel through a lease deal;
and documents from 2017 and 2018 related to relationships between Mr. Trump’s businesses and foreign states."
In February, Trump lashed out after Mazars severed ties.
"Mazars decision to withdraw was clearly a result of the AG's and DA's vicious intimidation tactics used — also on other members of the Trump Organization," Trump said.
"Mazars, who were scared beyond belief, in conversations with us made it clear that they were willing to do or say anything to stop the constant threat which has gone against them for years.
They were 'broken' and just wanted it all to stop."
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