A Trump Organization accounting firm says it will no longer work with the company after determining that statements Donald Trump made about his financials were unreliable, court papers revealed Monday.
Lawyer William Kelly of accounting firm Mazars said in a Feb. 9 letter to a Trump Org. lawyer that the firm would no longer work with the Trump family business after it concluded that the former president’s “Statements of Financial Condition” from 2011 to 2020 “should no longer be relied upon.”
The letter was made public Monday in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ ongoing civil case against the Trump Org., as she seeks subpoenas and depositions as part of her investigation into the company’s business practices.
Kelly said that Mazars came to the conclusion about the problems with the statements’ reliability following court filings by the AG’s office from last month, its own investigation and information it received “from internal and external sources.”
Kelly said that the statements “as a whole,” don’t “contain material discrepancies.” Still, “we believe our advice to you to no longer rely upon those financial statements is appropriate,” the letter continued.
“Mazars performed its work in accordance with professional standards,” Kelly wrote.
“We have also reached the point such that there is a non-waivable conflict of interest with the Trump Organization,” Kelly wrote. “As a result, we are not able to provide any new work product to the Trump Organization.”
James said that the Mazars letter is further proof that her probe into the company is valid and that a judge should uphold her subpoenas seeking testimony from Trump and his kids Ivanka and Don Jr.
“The evidence continues to mount showing that Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization used fraudulent and misleading financial statements to obtain economic benefit,” James said in a statement. “There should be no doubt that this is a lawful investigation and that we have legitimate reason to seek testimony from Donald J. Trump, Donald J. Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump.”
A Trump Org. spokesperson said the letter, in fact, vindicates the company and reiterated that the Mazars letter said it didn’t find “material discrepancies.”
“While we are disappointed that Mazars has chosen to part ways, their February 9, 2022 letter confirms that after conducting a subsequent review of all prior statements of financial condition, Mazars’ work was performed in accordance with all applicable accounting standards and principles and that such statements of financial condition do not contain any material discrepancies,” the statement reads. “This confirmation effectively renders the investigations by the DA and AG moot.”
The Trump camp has repeatedly accused James of unfairly targeting the family company for political reasons and has asked courts to vacate the subpoenas and halt her lawsuit.
James began her investigation in 2019 following Congressional testimony from Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen claiming that Trump exaggerated the value of company assets in order to receive better terms on loans and for tax purposes.