Trump could face NY tax fraud probe, prosecutor says

The New York City district attorney said Monday he believes he may have grounds to investigate impeached President Donald Trump and his businesses for tax fraud.

D.A. Cyrus Vance is trying to convince a federal appeals court to allow him to get Trump's tax returns.

From Reuters:

Lawyers for District Attorney Cyrus Vance made the assertion in a filing with the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan, four days before it considers Trump's request to block Vance's August 2019 subpoena for the tax returns.

The lawyers said the "mountainous" public allegations of misconduct, including misstatements about business properties, could justify a grand jury probe into possible tax fraud, insurance fraud and falsifying business records.

"Even if the grand jury were testing the truth of public allegations alone, such reports, taken together, fully justify the scope of the grand jury subpoena," Vance's lawyers wrote, without accusing Trump or his businesses of wrongdoing. (…) Among the reports Vance's office cited were allegations that Trump routinely sent lenders financial statements that inflated his assets and omitted debt-laden properties, and from 2004 to 2014 paid $400 million in cash for "five houses, eight golf courses and a winery" despite billions of dollars in debt.

Read more at Reuters: Trump could face tax fraud probe, Manhattan prosecutor says [By Jonathan Stempel]