(CNN) The New York state attorney general is asking for a court to compel Eric Trump to be deposed in an investigation of the Trump Organization. In court filings Monday, Letitia James' office said Eric Trump initially agreed to sit for a deposition on July 22, only to refuse, "balking less than two days before he was scheduled by agreement to give testimony." James' office outlined the scope of the investigation into whether the Trump Organization "improperly inflated the value of Mr. Trump's assets on financial statements in order to secure loans and obtain economic and tax benefits." The attorney general's office has been investigating President Donald Trump and the Trump Organization since 2019, when Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen testified before Congress that Trump's annual financial statements inflated the values of his assets in order to secure favorable loans and insurance coverage, but deflated the value of other assets in order to reduce real estate taxes. In the filing, James' office states Eric Trump's attorney sent a letter to the attorney general saying he would invoke "those rights afforded to every individual under the Constitution" as justification not to testify.

Source: CNN August 24, 2020 17:55 UTC