The New York Attorney General’s office has said it is expanding its civil probe into former president Donald Trump’s business empire, and that it is now “actively investigating the Trump Organisation in a criminal capacity”.
Attorney General Letitia James’s office, which was already conducting a civil investigation of Mr Trump’s company, suggested that the probe is in conjunction with an ongoing criminal investigation on him by the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr.
“We have informed the Trump Organisation that our investigation into the organisation is no longer purely civil in nature,” Fabien Levy, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“We are now actively investigating the Trump Organisation in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan DA,” he said.
For two years, the civil investigation has been probing whether the Trump Organisation manipulated property values to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits.
The new development comes as an additional potential liability for Mr Trump, who continues to tease the prospect of running again for office in 2024.
He has previously said he is “beyond seriously” considering a run but cannot announce it yet “from a legal standpoint.”
