The court-appointed monitor overseeing Donald Trump's businesses told a judge on Friday that the former president's financial information has contained "incomplete" or "inconsistent" disclosures containing "errors."
"I have identified certain deficiencies in the financial information that I have reviewed, including disclosures that are either incomplete, present results inconsistently, and/or contain errors," former federal judge Barbara Jones, tasked with scrutinizing the former president's business empire, wrote in a 12-page letter.
Though she described Trump and his businesses as "cooperative" with her investigation, Jones added that "information required to be submitted to me pursuant to the terms of the monitorship order and review protocol has, at times, been lacking in completeness and timeliness."
The judge sent her update to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who appointed her as a monitor in November 2022.
That was after New York State Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, three of his adult children, and two of his business associates, alleging that they falsely inflated the former president's assets by billions over the course of a decade. Last September, Engoron issued a ruling dissolving Trump's New York business empire for "persistent" fraud.
The attorney general's office claims that Trump's alleged intransigence, even after a monitor was in place, justifies even heavier punishments — like a roughly $370 million fine and a lifetime ban from New York's real estate industry.
Jones, who also served as a monitor in Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen's criminal investigations, said that the Trump Organization has "implemented changes" under her monitorship, but it needs to shape up even more.
"Absent steps to address the items above, my observations suggest misstatements and errors may continue to occur, which could result in incorrect or inaccurate reporting of financial information to third parties," she said.
But Jones declined to weigh in on whether the issues she observed amounted to fraud.
"In addition, while I am to receive advance notice of restructuring or sales, my appointment does not require or permit advanced approval of the TrumpOrganization's preparation or submission of financial information to third parties," the letter states. "Thus, I am not in a position to conclude whether fraudulent activity occurred."
At a hearing earlier this month, Engoron announced that he plans to rule on the requests before the end of the month.