Donald Trump on the ninth fairway during the pro-am prior to the start of the Buick Classic at the Westchester Country Club on June 9, 2004. (Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images)
Wrapping up a criminal probe that nearly stretched two years, a New York county prosecutor declined to charge former President Donald Trump on suspected tax offenses related to his golf club in Westchester.
“The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office conducted an investigation regarding certain properties owned by Donald J. Trump and/or the Trump Organization located in Westchester County, New York,” a spokesperson for Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah (D) said in a statement. “Our investigation is now closed. We approached this investigation as we do all of our investigations, objectively, and independent of politics, party affiliation and personal or political beliefs.”
The announcement removes one area of criminal exposure for Trump at a time when those liabilities are piling up.
A short distance south of Westchester, New York County District Attorney Alvin Bragg (D) filed a 34-count felony indictment against Trump for allegedly falsifying business records in connection with hush money payments to pornographic film actress Stormy Daniels. Department of Justice special counsel Jack Smith followed up with a 37-count indictment for alleged violations of the Espionage Act, conspiring to obstruct justice, false statements, and other charges in connection with the mishandling of national defense information.
Two other open investigations remain: Trump remains under investigation by the Justice Department for his actions before the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis (D) has been looking into Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
Though the remaining investigations are widely expected to expand his legal woes, Trump celebrated the closing of one of the cases against him in an all-caps post on his social media platform Truth Social.
“THIS WAS THE HONORABLE THING TO DO IN THAT I DID NOTHING WRONG, BUT WHERE AND WHEN DO I GET MY REPUTATION BACK?” Trump wrote. “WHEN WILL THE OTHER FAKE CASES AGAINST ME BE DROPPED? ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”
The Trump National Golf Club Westchester is located in the town of Ossining, New York, and local officials set property taxes at the 140-acre private club just miles north of New York City. Suspicions about the club’s taxes swirled long before the opening of the investigation.
In July 2021, the Ossining town board signed off on a settlement with Trump National Golf Club LLC “correcting and reducing” the value of the golf club for five years beginning in 2016.
The club’s tax practices drew both criminal and civil scrutiny, and while the criminal probe has dissolved, New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) accused the Westchester club of “inflated membership fees” as part of her $250 million lawsuit accusing the former president of fraudulent practices in several of his properties.
“For example, at Mr. Trump’s golf course in Westchester, the valuation for 2011 assumed new members would pay an initiation fee of nearly $200,000 for each of the 67 unsold memberships, even though many new members in that year paid no initiation fee at all,” James wrote in her lawsuit last September. “In some instances, Mr. Trump specifically directed club employees to reduce or eliminate the initiation fees to boost membership numbers.”
If Trump is found liable in his fraud lawsuit, a Manhattan judge may bar him and three of his adult children from ever serving as a director of any New York corporation.
Law&Crime’s Colin Kalmbacher contributed to this report.
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