Now that the retired federal judge babysitting the Trump Organization has uncovered potential tax fraud at the company, the Trumps responded over the weekend by tasking their own accountant as a monitor that monitors the court monitor.
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In an indignant court filing Monday morning, a lawyer for the Trumps for the first time launched an all-out attack on Judge Barbara S. Jones—calling her latest report on the family company an absolute lie, a cheap attempt to justify her government— mandated job, and a last-minute ploy to bolster the New York Attorney General's bank fraud case that just wrapped up.
"Further oversight is unwarranted and will only unjustly enrich the monitor as she engages in some 'Javert' like quest," he wrote, making a reference to the fictional French law enforcement officer in Victor Hugo's Les Misérables, who's defined by his obsessive pursuit and lack of empathy.
The Trumps also complained about the $2.6 million they've had to pay Jones to do her job, dismissing her findings wholesale.
That the monitor seeks to now perpetuate this folly is beyond the pale,” wrote Clifford S. Robert, who represents the Trump family.
The counterpunch comes just days after Jones revealed a bombshell about former President Donald Trump's finances. In the run-up to the AG's trial against the Trumps for lying about real estate values, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur F. Engoron ordered that a court monitor watch over the sprawling family company to ensure it doesn't shift or hide assets ahead. of a potentially huge judgment that could cripple the business empire. Since then, Jones has issued nearly half a dozen reports indicating that, for the most part, all is well.
That is, until Friday, when she updated Engoron with a report that, as The Daily Beast first reported, suggested Trump lied for years about a supposed personal loan he made to one of his own companies—sleight of hand that may have allowed him to dodge taxes on nearly $50 million in income.
"When I inquired about this loan, I was informed that there are no loan agreements that memorialize the loan, but that it was a loan that was believed to be between Donald J. Trump, individually, and Chicago Unit Acquisition for $48 million," she wrote.
That tiny footnote made big news Friday afternoon—just as Trump lost his second rape defamation trial and was ordered to pay $83 million to the journalist E. Jean Carroll.
The Trumps' lawyer pushed back on that report Monday morning, labeling her assertion a “demonstrable falsehood”—and calling into question her ability to do her job.