Former President Donald Trump’s accounting firm has turned over millions of pages of his tax returns, as well as other financial data spanning eight years, to prosecutors in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, officials said Thursday, according to the Washington Post.
On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Trump’s final effort to shield his tax records from Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance Jr., prompting the transfer of the records.
Danny Frost, a spokesman for the district attorney’s office, said the accounting firm Mazars complied with the subpoena after more than a year of attempts by Trump’s lawyers to keep the financial information private. Frost noted that the transfer took place within hours of the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“As we have maintained throughout this process, Mazars will comply with all its legal and professional obligations,” a spokesman for Mazars said Thursday.
According to the Post, a team of analysts will dissect the former president’s financial records in search of any evidence of criminal activity at the Trump Organization or by its executive employees, including Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump and Ivanka Trump, and the company’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg.
The investigative team are determining if the contents within the Trump Organization portfolio were manipulated to obtain tax advantages, loans or better insurance rates under false pretenses.
Vance estimated the examination could take months, given the volume of the documents dating back eight years.
Trump has strenuously denied any wrongdoing, accusing the district attorney of engaging in a “fishing expedition” in order to execute a political hitjob on behalf of Democrats.
Following the Supreme Court’s ruling, Trump released a statement, saying, “So now, for more than two years, New York City has been looking at almost every transaction I’ve ever done, including seeking tax returns which were done by among the biggest and most prestigious law and accounting firms in the U.S.”
“The Supreme Court never should have let this “fishing expedition” happen, but they did,” he continued.
Trump went on to accuse prosecutors and Attorney Generals of “using the law as a weapon” in an attempt to take down political opponents, calling it “a threat to the very foundation of our liberty.”
“That’s what is done in third world countries,” Trump’s statement read. Even worse are those who run for prosecutorial or attorney general offices in far-left states and jurisdictions pledging to take out a political opponent. That’s fascism, not justice—and that is exactly what they are trying to do with respect to me, except that the people of our Country won’t stand for it.”
