The NY fraud case against Trump
A Manhattan judge on Tuesday found Donald Trump committed fraud by exaggerating the value of his wealth — and canceled the former president’s New York business licenses, which could hamper his longtime company’s ability to operate in the Empire State.
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron found Trump, 77, his family and his business, the Trump Organization, liable for fraud — the key claim in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ sprawling lawsuit against the defendants.
In a 35-page ruling, Engoron sided with James, who argued that Trump made several indisputably false statements in business documents to secure favorable terms with banks – including by claiming that his soaring triplex penthouse at Trump Tower was 30,000 square feet when it was in fact closer to 11,000 feet.
“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote.
The judge revoked the New York “business certificates” belonging to the Trump Organization and any other New York-based business run by Trump or his family – while ordering that an independent third party will be tasked with “managing the dissolution of the cancelled LLCs.”
It means Trump could be stripped of control over some of his namesake properties — including Trump Tower in Midtown.
“The widespread, radical attack against me, my family and my supporters have now devolved to new, un-American depths,” Trump ranted on Truth Social Tuesday night, calling Engoron “deranged” and James a “completely biased and corrupt ‘prosecutor.’”
“We are rapidly becoming a communist country, and my civil rights have been taken away from me,” he continued.
“This is Democrat political lawfare and a witch hunt at a level never seen before.”
Trump plans to appeal the decision, his attorneys said.
“Today’s outrageous decision is completely disconnected from the facts and governing law,” Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, said in a statement. “President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice.”
Trump’s effort to get the court to dismiss James’ fraud and other claims — including by arguing that the statute of limitations on them had run out — was also denied in Tuesday’s ruling.
And the judge issued sanctions against several of Trump’s lawyers, ordering five of the former president’s attorneys to pay $7,500 each for making “frivolous” arguments in the case.
A non-jury trial is set to start Oct. 2 for Engoron to hear arguments on the other claims in the suit, before deciding on those allegations.
James’ office has previously claimed that the former president, the Trump Organization, and Eric and Donald Trump Jr. overstated the value of his assets by as much as $3.6 billion a year.
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I have done legal work on several real estate transactions and never met a developer who did not have a high regard for the value of his project. I have also litigated fraud cases. What is odd about this one is that usually, you have a claimant who is harmed by the alleged misleading claims. That would usually require a failure of the business or insolvency which does not appear to be the case for the Trump property.
At least in this report of the litigation there is no indication that the lender has not been paid . There is no indication that investors are victims. What appears to be the case is that Democrats are desperate to avoid running against Trump in 2024 and are willing to go to legal extremes to avoid that. I think they are also panicked by the polling showing that previous cases have actually increased Trump's support.
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