On Friday, January 5, 2024, the New York attorney general asked the judge overseeing Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial to penalize the former president about $370 million. The NYAG Letitia James said the trial demonstrated that he had gained that amount through unlawful conduct.
James estimated over $250 million in the fall of 2022 when she sued Trump. She accused him of inflating his net worth to obtain favorable treatment from banks and insurers. Also, she requested a lifetime ban on him and two of his former company executives. James asked the court to ban them from the real estate industry in the state.
Attorneys from James’ office requested the punishment in post-trial motions filed in the Trump fraud case. They said that Trump owes $168 million of interest allegedly saved through fraud. Also, he owes $152 million from selling the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., the site of one of Trump’s hotels.
In addition, they alleged that the former president owes $60 million through the transfer of the Ferry Point Golf Course contract. Lastly, $2.5 million from severance agreements for former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Howard Weisselberg and Jeff McConney.
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James also asked for five-year bans for Trump’s eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, with the same conditions. The summary judgment in the case found the former president, his company, and top executives liable for persistent fraud.
According to the suit, Trump falsely inflated his statements of financial condition by between $812 million and $2.2 billion. The trial began in October 2023, and proceedings ended in December. However, Trump’s fate remains unsettled. In one of their filings, Trump’s lawyers wrote that James failed to prove her case.
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The defense attorneys filed a separate motion that the evidence doesn’t prove that Trump intended to defraud. They said the same applies to Weisselberg and McConney. Also, they argued that the attorney general’s office failed to prove insurance fraud and has not demonstrated any real-world impact.
On his part, Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the case. He called the lawsuit a partisan “witch hunt” and has vowed to appeal the judge’s ruling. Following the filing on Friday, Trump took to Truth Social to declare his innocence. “I did nothing wrong; my financial statements are great, & very conservative,” he wrote.
“The exact opposite of what the highly political & totally corrupt New York state attorney general says.” In addition, Trump said the case shouldn’t have made it to court and called out James for seeking $370 million. “Now the corrupt A.G. wants $370,000,000 as businesses flee New York,” he wrote.
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“They should pay me. This is prosecutorial misconduct – a DOJ witch hunt!” Similarly, a lawyer for Trump, Christopher M. Kise, condemned the fine. In a statement, Kise said the amount was “unconscionable, unsupported by the evidence, untethered from reality and unconstitutionally excessive.”
Trump’s team argued that he didn’t inflate the financial statements and that James’ valuations are subjective. However, Judge Arthur Engoron said in a December 18, 2023 ruling that Trump’s team’s arguments didn’t convince him. Engoron added that he expects to issue a written decision with his findings in the following weeks.
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