In a stunning development, Monday Donald Trump’s longtime account firm effectively fired the former president, and retracted a decade’s worth of financial filings, saying it could no longer stand by the statements it created, which were based on information Trump had provided to them.
Trump is currently under investigation for possibly inflating the value of his assets for credit purposes and deflating them for tax purposes.
In a letter, The New York Times reports, Trump’s now-former accountants, Mazars USA, “instructed the Trump Organization to essentially retract the documents, known as statements of financial condition, from 2011 to 2020.”
Attorney Luppe B. Luppen posted the letter:
“The determination by Mazars,” Luppen writes on Substack, “that Trump’s financial statements over a full decade are not reliable through no fault of its own amounts to a declaration that it has been repeatedly misled by its client.”
Attorney George Conway serves up a real gut punch: “For any business (including a privately-held one) that has outside financing or investors, having your financial statements (let alone 10 years’ worth!) pulled by your accountants is just about the most calamitous thing that could happen to it, other than perhaps being indicted.”
Former SDNY Asst. U.S. Attorney Richard Signorelli: “This is a very carefully drafted letter. Mazars may have some concern about its own exposure IMO.”
Attorney Max Kennerly mockingly writes: “There’s red flags, and then there’s someone’s trusted accounting firm saying ‘oh hey we did some double-checking after the NY AG sued you and FYI you can’t rely on any of our work over the past decade and we are immediately ending our relationship with you, thxkbye.'”
Francine McKenna, the founder and editor of TheAuditors.com writes: “If your own client sues you or if you are forced to take an adverse position against your client by prosecutor or shareholders, you have to resign.
Attorney and NBC News and MSNBC legal contributor Katie S. Phang puts it bluntly: “Mazars officially kicks Trump and his companies to the curb.”