An investigation of Donald Trump being carried out by the state of New York’s attorney general is now a criminal inquiry.

A spokesperson for attorney general Letitia James said: “We have informed The Trump Organization that our investigation into the organisation is no longer purely civil in nature.

“We are now actively investigating The Trump Organization in a criminal capacity, along with the Manhattan district attorney.”

The inquiry led by Ms James – a Democrat – has previously been branded a “witch hunt” by the Republican former president, who is yet to comment on the latest development.

Ms James has been looking into whether The Trump Organization falsely reported property values to get loans and receive tax and economic benefits.

This included inflating the value of some assets to secure higher lending, and undervaluing other properties in order to get tax breaks.

Among the properties being queried are Mr Trump’s estate north of Manhattan, a Trump office building in New York City, a hotel in Chicago and a Los Angeles golf course.

The separate investigation being carried out by Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance – also a Democrat – is looking into Mr Trump’s business dealings from before he was elected to the White House.

It has been under way for more than two years and is said to be probing “possibly extensive and protracted criminal conduct” at The Trump Organization.

The exact nature of the Manhattan district attorney’s inquiry is not known due to US grand jury rules.

But following a multi-year legal wrangle over the former president’s tax returns, it is now known that Mr Vance is looking into possible tax and insurance fraud, as well as falsification of documents.

Mr Vance’s investigation started after Mr Trump’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen allegedly paid two women to be silent about claimed sexual relationships with Mr Tump in the run up to the 2017 presidential election.

Mr Vance has sought evidence from the former daughter-in-law of The Trump Organization’s chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg, into how Trump employees were compensated.

Related posts:

MacKenzie Scott donates nearly £2bn as she calls out ‘disproportionate’ wealth gap Las Vegas Raiders’ Carl Nassib becomes first active NFL player to say he is gay ‘It sucks and I’m scared’: Blink-182 star reveals cancer diagnosis At least four killed and 159 unaccounted for after Miami building collapse Fentanyl pushes US drug deaths to record levels with 93,000 fatal overdoses last year Man was harassed by bear for a week before being rescued in Alaska Former US president Bill Clinton remains in hospital for second day but ‘doing well’ Alec Baldwin ‘heartbroken’ and ‘fully cooperating’ with police after woman shot dead on movie set Oklahoma governor commutes Julius Jones’ death sentence hours before execution Big Bird and Sesame Street friends banned from largest Republican conference Jordan Turpin’s escape from ‘house of horrors’ shown in new bodycam footage ‘Person of interest’ named as five killed and more than 40 injured after car driven into Christmas parade