New York prosecutors conduct HOURS-long interview with Trump's former personal attorney Michael Cohen about the president's Deutsche Bank accounts
New York prosecutors conducted an hours-long interview of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, about his old employer's finances.
The interview with the 54-year-old, took place on Thursday, sources told Associated Press . It focused in part on Trump’s relationship with Deutsche Bank, his biggest and longest standing creditor.
The interview, at least the second of Cohen by the Manhattan district attorney’s office, comes amid a long-running grand jury investigation into Trump’s business dealings.
New York prosecutors conducted an hours-long interview of Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump’s former personal attorney, about his old employer's finances. Cohen is pictured returning to his apartment in New York after being released from prison due to concerns over the spread of coronavirus in prison facilities, on July 24, 2020
Cohen, pictured behind Trump in Ohio in 2016, is being questioned regarding his former employer's business and tax dealings
Cohen, the disgraced Trump fixer, is spending the remainder of his three-year federal prison sentence at his Upper East Side flat due to the coronavirus pandemic
The New York investigation is one of several legal entanglements that are likely to intensify as Trump loses power — and any immunity from prosecution he might have as a sitting president — as he departs the White House.
The Manhattan-based grand jury has been continuing its work despite the coronavirus pandemic, which has curtailed many court operations.
District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr. has been waging a protracted legal battle to get access to the president’s tax records.
The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to rule on Trump’s request for a stay and a further appeal after he leaves office January 20.
The Republican president also faces a civil investigation, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, into whether Trump’s company lied about the value of its assets to get loans or tax benefits. Cohen also is cooperating with that inquiry.
James is probing whether Eric Trump and various corporate entities artificially inflated property values. Trump is pictured with his son Eric at the Trump International Hotel in Washington, DC in 2016
New York Attorney General Letitia James has opened a civil litigation into whether Trump’s company lied about the value of its assets to get loans or tax benefits
Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance has been conducting a criminal investigation of Trump and the family company, the Trump Organization (file photo from February 2020)
He previously told Congress that Trump often inflated the value of his assets when dealing with lenders or potential business partners, but deflated them when it benefited him for tax purposes.
The White House declined to comment. A message seeking comment was sent to Cohen’s attorney.
Trump has repeatedly called the investigations by Vance and James, both Democrats, a baseless political 'witch hunt.'
Vance has declined to provide specific details about the investigation, but pointed to news reports of what prosecutors described as 'extensive and protracted criminal conduct at the Trump Organization' in court filings.
Among the reports Vance’s office referenced in court filings was a 2017 article about Ladder Capital, a commercial mortgage lender that made more than $250 million in loans to the Trump Organization that were secured by Trump properties.
Jack Weisselberg, the son of Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg, is a director of Ladder Capital.