Letitia James Seeks $370M From Trump In NY Civil Case
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) is now demanding that former President Donald Trump and his company pay $370 million in the state’s civil fraud case against him, which is a significant increase from the prior $250 million she claimed he owed.
James has accused Trump of inflating his net worth using various different means, including inflating the value of his real estate, in order to obtain better loans. In a press release when she launched the lawsuit, James declared that the monetary damages Trump would owe would be “at least two hundred and fifty million dollars” and were “to be determined at trial.”
Despite the clear bias against Trump in this case, the trial has been allowed to move forward and has been ongoing for several months. Closing arguments are scheduled for January 11.
James filed a brief on Friday in the Manhattan courthouse containing the demanded increase in penalties. She claimed in the filing that Trump used a “myriad deceptive schemes” to “inflate asset values and conceal facts” that “were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation.”
Trump’s attorneys have responded to the increase in a statement, writing: “There is no evidence in the record that the terms or pricing of any of the subject loans would have been different based on the purported misstatements alleged by Plaintiff.”
“Not a single witness from any bank (or anywhere else) testified to this at trial,” Trump’s team pointed out.
The former president also spoke about the news during a recent rally, stating: “These fascists, what they’re doing to this country is unbelievable.”
Trump and his team have repeatedly slammed James over this case, arguing that it was just another example of the political persecution that the former president has been facing. In a statement on social media in October, Trump declared: “We have a racist attorney general whose [sic] a horror show, who ran on the basis that she was gonna get Trump before she even knew anything about me. She used this to run for governor.”
Before the trial even began, James campaigned on arresting Trump. The judge in the case, Arthur Engoron, and his law clerk Allison Greenfield have also been proven to be biased against the former president. For example, Engoron ruled prior to the trial that Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s massive beachfront resort property in Palm Beach, Florida, was worth only $18 million — which is objectively incorrect according to any measurable standards, as analysts pointed out that even a nearby undeveloped 2-acre lot was being sold for $150 million.
