Several news outlets have reported that Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah has launched an investigation into dealings surrounding Donald Trump”™s Trump National Golf Course in Briarcliff Manor in the town of Ossining.
A spokesperson at her office declined to confirm or deny that is the case when asked about it this morning by the Business Journal.
“No comment” was the on-the-record reply from the spokesperson.
The spokesperson also would not comment on whether the district attorney has sought records from the town of Ossining regarding an effort by the Trump Organization to reduce property taxes on the course that included a claim that its value was about half of what the town had determined.
New York Attorney General Letitia James”™ office and Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance have already been conducting criminal investigations into Trump”™s activities in which property ownership in Westchester is a factor.
James opened her investigation in 2019 after Trump”™s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen testified before Congress about what he described as Trump”™s practice of inflating the value of his assets when seeking favorable terms for loans and insurance coverage while at the same time deflating the values of those same assets to reduce taxes.
With respect to Trump National, it was reported that a financial disclosure form filed on behalf of Trump in 2016 showed the golf course as being valued at $50 million, while Ossining placed a value of approximately $15 million on the property. In a tax grievance, the Trump Organization claimed it was only worth $7.5 million.
An ABC News report includes a statement issued by a Trump Organization spokesperson.
“The Club’s request for a review of its tax assessments was amicably resolved earlier this year and signed off by the Town Board, the Town Assessor, Special Counsel for the Town … the Briarcliff Manor School District, the Office of the Westchester County Attorney and the Westchester County Supreme Court judge presiding over the matter,” the spokesperson said. “Accordingly, the suggestion that anything was inappropriate is completely false and incredibly irresponsible. The witch hunt continues.
The Business Journal has reviewed a State Supreme Court Consent Judgment from this past August that ordered reductions in the property taxes on the Trump National Golf Club LLC.
Trump National had filed a court case against the town of Ossining, Ossining”™s Assessor and Ossining”™s Board of Review in addition to the Briarcliff Manor Union Free School District seeking review of the tax assessments on the golf course. The matter had been heard by Judge Bruce E. Tolbert at the Westchester County Courthouse in White Plains.
The Consent Judgment ordered taxes reduced for the years 2015 through 2020. The 2018 and 2019 assessed valuations of $15,759,800 per year were reduced to $10,250,000 for each year. The Consent Judgement also decreed that the property should be assessed at $9,500,000 for the 2021 assessment.
