New York prosecutor says Trump inquiry now criminal

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New York prosecutor says Trump inquiry now criminal
The New York attorney general's office says it really is investigating the Trump Firm "in a criminal capacity".

A spokesman for the state's top prosecutor, Letitia James, said the inquiry into Mr Trump's real estate company was "no longer purely civil".

Ms James has been scrutinizing the ex-Republican president's financial dealings before he took business office. The Trumps deny wrongdoing and claim the inquiry by a Democratic prosecutor can be a political vendetta.

Ms James' spokesman, Fabien Levy, told the BBC on Tuesday: "We have informed the Trump Group that our investigation into the Organization is no longer purely civil found in nature.

"We are now actively investigating the Trump Group in a criminal capability, along with the Manhattan DA. We've no additional comment."
The statement did not say what turned the inquiry from civil to criminal in nature, or whether the former president himself could possibly be personally implicated in virtually any allegations. Civil cases usually have to perform with problems for individuals or other individual celebrations, including businesses; criminal laws applies where the harm is considered to affect society most importantly, including the state.

Ms James launched a civil inquiry in March 2019 into claims that Mr Trump had inflated the worthiness of his property to banks when trying to find loans, and understated them to lessen his taxes. Her workplace in addition has been seeking records on four Trump Group properties in Manhattan, upstate New York, Chicago and LA. Manhattan District Lawyer Cyrus Vance Jr said in court documents previous August that his business office was investigating alleged "protracted criminal conduct" at the Trump Business.

Mr Vance's legal filing cited newspaper articles about purported bank and insurance fraud at the business. The Manhattan district legal professional in addition has been investigating whether some of Mr Trump's monetary data were doctored to hide hush-money payments to two women in 2016 who declare that they had affairs with him.
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