NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo Argues Trump’s Florida Move is Attempt to Dodge a DA Case in Manhattan

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told MSNBC that President Donald Trump may have changed residency to Florida because he’s trying to avoid handing over his tax returns to New York state.

“There is a legal proceeding against the president from the Manhattan district attorney’s office where they’re trying to get him to turn over the taxes,” Cuomo said, citing his experience as New York attorney general. “My guess is he was advised by his lawyer that would help his case to not to release his taxes to the Manhattan district attorney if he could say he was no longer a resident of the state of New York.”

Cuomo spoke with anchors Ali Velshi and Stephanie Ruhle Friday afternoon on their eponymous program Velshi & Ruhle.

Velshi noted New York has high tax rates and “this may have to do that once he’s a private citizen, he doesn’t want to pay New York taxes.”

Cuomo conceded that is a fair point and that Trump may be preparing to retire, but argued tax rates in New York have gone down under his governorship.

“Donald Trump, I think has alienated many people in the state of New York,” Cuomo said. “He raised New York’s taxes when he passed his federal tax reform with the so-called SALT elimination of state and local tax deductibility–it cost New York $15 billion dollars. His policies alienated New Yorkers.”

“We know that state prosecutors have been fighting to get the president’s taxes since he took office,” Ruhle noted. “Will that fight continue now that he’s not a New Yorker?”

Cuomo said it would, calling Trump’s move to Florida a “desperate legal move.”

“When you filed your taxes, you were a New York resident. If you defrauded the state, you defrauded it when you were a New York state resident. Just because you move out does not mean you are not liable for what you say in those taxes,” Cuomo said. “These are desperate times for the president.”

Watch above, via MSNBC.