'100 Percent False': Trump Lawyer Skewers NYT Piece Accusing President of 'Outright Fraud'

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance has confirmed that it is investigating claims by The New York Times that President Donald Trump helped his parents evade paying taxes on millions of dollars.

The paper alleges that the president was involved in "dubious tax schemes," part of which they say involved dodging taxes and some instances of "outright fraud."    

According to the report, the president received "the equivalent today of at least $413 million" from his father's real estate company.

"He and his siblings set up a sham corporation to disguise millions of dollars in gifts from their parents, records and interviews show," The Times charged. "Records indicate that Mr. Trump helped his father take improper tax deductions worth millions more."

"He also helped formulate a strategy to undervalue his parents' real estate holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars on tax returns, sharply reducing the tax bill when those properties were transferred to him and his siblings," the paper noted.

The alleged illicit activity was reportedly met with little opposition from the IRS, according to the newspaper.

Meanwhile, the president's lawyer, Charles J. Harder, insists the allegations are entirely without merit.

"The New York Times's allegations of fraud and tax evasion are 100 percent false, and highly defamatory," Harder said in a written statement. "There was no fraud or tax evasion by anyone. The facts upon which The Times bases its false allegations are extremely inaccurate."

"President Trump had virtually no involvement whatsoever with these matters," Harder continued. "The affairs were handled by other Trump family members who were not experts themselves and therefore relied entirely upon the aforementioned licensed professionals to ensure full compliance with the law."

The White House also hit back at what it views as a misleading article.

"Fred Trump has been gone for nearly 20 years and it's sad to witness this misleading attack against the Trump family," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders said in a statement Tuesday. "Many decades ago the IRS reviewed and signed off on these transactions."

James Gazzale, a spokesperson for the New York State Department, informed Newsweek that it "is vigorously pursuing all appropriate avenues of investigation."