Westchester County DA Ends Investigation Into Trump Golf Course

Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks at the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, on June 13, 2023. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Former President Donald Trump applauded a suburban New York prosecutor after she dropped a two-year criminal investigation into him and his company.

Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah, a Democrat, said in a statement on June 15 that her office had closed the case against Trump after an investigation that was conducted “objectively, and independent of politics, party affiliation and personal or political beliefs.”

Her office did not file charges against Trump or the Trump Organization.

Trump applauded Rocah’s decision, writing on his Truth Social account that ending the investigation “WAS THE HONORABLE THING TO DO IN THAT I DID NOTHING WRONG.”

“BUT WHERE AND WHEN DO I GET MY REPUTATION BACK? WHEN WILL THE OTHER FAKE CASES AGAINST ME BE DROPPED?” Trump added. “ELECTION INTERFERENCE!!!”

Rocah began investigating Trump in 2021, in an effort to decide whether the former president or his company had misled authorities about the value of the Trump National Golf Club Westchester to pay less on property taxes.

According to The New York Times, Rocah’s office subpoenaed records from the golf course and the town of Ossining in 2021. Ossining handles the course’s taxes.

Trump had previously called Rocah’s investigation a “witch hunt.”

“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 (who determined the settlement to be both ‘appropriate and in the best interests of the Town of Ossining’), the Briarcliff Manor School District, the Office of the Westchester County Attorney and the Westchester County Supreme Court judge presiding over the matter,” a spokesperson for the Trump Organization told The Hill via email.

“Accordingly, the suggestion that anything was inappropriate is completely false and incredibly irresponsible. The witch hunt continues,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Trump is facing a separate lawsuit in New York. In September 2022, New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a civil lawsuit against Trump, the Trump Organization, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump’s business associates over alleged fraud. The lawsuit claims that the Trump Organization deceived insurers, lenders, and tax officials by allegedly inflating the value of its assets.

The case is set to go to trial in October. However, James recently said her case could be delayed by the Department of Justice’s prosecution against the former president over his alleged mishandling of classified documents.

On June 13, at a federal court in Miami, Trump entered a not-guilty plea to 37 felony charges in the classified document case.

Rocah talked about her decision to close down her case against Trump in an interview with CBS on Thursday.

“I think it’s really important, more important than ever in our country, to make sure that people understand that we have independent prosecutors, we have a justice system that operates independent of politics,“ Rocah told the outlet. ”I can stand here and proudly say that I’m one of those prosecutors, and I look at every subject of any investigation, every organization that’s a subject of an investigation, the same way.”

Trump’s legal troubles have not negatively affected his popularity with GOP voters, according to the latest National Research Inc. survey commissioned by American Greatness.

The survey, which queried 500 likely New Hampshire voters from June 12 to 14, found Trump in the lead with 44 percent of support, up 5 percent from the outfit’s May survey.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seen as Trump’s top rival, picked up 12 percent of support, dropping six percentage points from the previous survey.

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) finished tied at third with 7 percent of support each, followed by former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (5 percent), biotechnology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy (3 percent), former Vice President Mike Pence (3 percent), and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson (2 percent).

The Associated Press contributed to this report.