Prosecutors are ready to look into Donald Trump’s financial statements for any reason to prosecute the former president
As reported by News Front, the day before, the US Supreme Court allowed the declassification of Trump’s declarations. The justices thus rejected the former president’s motion to stay the lower court’s October 7 ruling ordering the accounting firm Mazars USA to comply with the request to turn over the materials.
Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. will now have the opportunity to prosecute Trump. While it’s unclear at this point whether any of the financial records will be found, experts are confident – prosecutors will cling to any opportunity.
“Prosecutors will look for inaccuracies in the paperwork”, – says former federal prosecutor Duncan Levin in a commentary for the Associated Press. – “For example, if Trump told the IRS that he was broke and his creditors that he was rich, that’s exactly the type of inconsistency they could build a case on.”
According to the court order, the accounting firm must provide not only final versions of Trump’s tax returns, but also draft versions of documents, as well as “any financial statements, annual reports, periodic financial statements and independent auditor’s reports.”
For prosecutors, this could be an “open book”, says former prosecutor Adam Citron.
“They [prosecutors] are going to look at valuations and property values”, – he said. – “They’re going to look at the lawyers’ accounts to see what their expenses were.”