Trump Organization May Be Forced To Hire Outside Firm To Ensure Compliance With Subpoenas

The Trump Organization may be forced to hire an independent firm to oversee compliance with subpoenas from the New York State Attorney General’s office in its fraud investigation, according to a court order unsealed Thursday. 

Judge Arthur Engoron is requiring the Trump Organization to submit a report detailing how it has responded to the subpoenas in a case alleging the company falsified the value of its assets to secure loans and tax breaks. If the attorney general’s office determines those actions have been insufficient, the Trump Organization will have to retain, at its own cost, an independent firm to oversee its compliance.  

Based on a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) issued after the ruling, such an outcome seems likely. 

“For more than a year now, the Trump Organization has failed to adequately respond to our subpoenas, hiding behind procedural delays and excuses,” James said Friday. “Once again, the court has ordered that the Trump Organization must turn over the information and documents we are seeking, otherwise face an independent third-party that will ensure that takes place.” 

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An appendix to the order lists 25 people whose phones and laptops the attorney general’s office wants to search. Included are former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, Ivanka Trump, Trump Organization Chief Operating Officer Matthew Calamari and longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weissselberg.  

One of Eric Trump’s attorneys, Marc Mukasey of Mukasey Frenchman LLP, quit this case on Sept. 14, just after the stipulation was sealed, as Forbes previously reported. Mukasey’s notice to the court does not include an explanation for his departure, and he would not speak on the record about it. 

The order was unsealed in response to a request from the legal news service Law360. “The general rule is that documents should be open to the public,” Engorn wrote. “The Trump Organization has not demonstrated good cause for making an exception to that rule.”