The Daily Fuckup

Mazars told the Trump Organization in a Feb. 9, 2022 letter that the statements of financial condition it prepared for Donald Trump for the years ending June 30, 2011 through June 30, 2020 should no longer be relied upon. The letter also said recipients of those statements should be informed not to rely on them. It became public on Feb. 14, 2022, when it was filed in New York court papers. citeturn0search0turn0search1

The timing mattered because the statements were used in business and financial contexts, including representations tied to lending and other deals. New York Attorney General Letitia James had already accused Trump and the Trump Organization of using inflated asset values to mislead banks and tax authorities, while Mazars said its own review, the attorney general’s filings, and information from internal and external sources informed its decision to withdraw reliance. citeturn0search0turn0search1turn0search2

Mazars’ move did not itself prove fraud, and it did not say every figure in every statement was false. What it did do was remove a major outside accounting firm from the chain of confidence around a decade of financial statements that had helped support Trump’s self-portrayal as far wealthier than his critics believed. That left the documents under sharper legal and political scrutiny, with questions still open about who relied on them and to what effect. citeturn0search0turn0search2