On Thursday, Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah announced the conclusion of an inquiry into the Trump Organization’s appraisals of a New York golf club that had been ongoing for several years.
Rocah told a news station that she is speaking out because Americans must know that the country’s justice system is separate from politics and that prosecutors can make their own decisions. Rocah noted that she takes great pride in being the type of prosecutor that treats every person and organization under investigation equally.
Democrat Rocah began looking into the Trump National Golf Club in Briarcliff Manor’s tax bill to inspect if the former president or the Trump Organization had given officials false property values.
Trump and his company have not been charged.
After a two-year criminal investigation by the Westchester County District Attorney’s office, Trump announced Thursday night on Truth Social that the case had been closed and no charges would be brought against him. Trump stated that he had done nothing wrong and that this was the honorable thing to do. Then he demanded to know when the other bogus cases against him would be dropped and when he would regain his good name.
Trump also contended in his post that this constituted election interference.
Former assistant U.S. Attorney Elliott Jacobson, now serving as a special prosecutor for Westchester County District Attorney, oversaw the investigation. In May, he announced that he would finish his tenure as a volunteer in the office by the end of the year.
Records from the golf course and the town of Ossining (which collects the course’s taxes) were subpoenaed by Rocah’s office.
In the past, the golf club was estimated to be worth about $1.4 million by the Trump Organization for tax purposes. A revised figure of $6.5 million was proposed. However, Ossining municipal officials estimated that the golf club was worth more than $15 million for several years.
In 2021, a judge in New York ruled on a solution that would reduce the assessment to $9.5 million. Overcharges on the business’ previous taxes were reduced by around $875,000 thanks to the deal, which reduced assessments by nearly 30% going back several years.
Rocah’s statement followed Trump’s not-guilty plea in a Miami court on 37 federal counts from the investigation by Special Counsel Jack Smith into his alleged improper keeping of confidential records at Mar-a-Lago. Among the allegations were conspiracy to impede justice, making false statements, and the deliberate retention of national defense information.
Even though Florida Governor Ron DeSantis declared his candidacy for president in late May 2024, Trump is currently in the lead in the Republican primary. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has charged former President Trump with filing false business documents in connection with hush money payments made during the 2016 presidential campaign, an allegation to which he pled not guilty in a New York state court in April.