NY Attorney General seeks penalties against Trump for rejected legal arguments.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is taking a bold stance against former President Donald Trump and his associates. She has asked the New York Supreme Court to sanction them with a $20,000 fine for their “previously-rejected arguments” in legal motions.
According to court documents filed on Sept. 5 (pdf), the state’s top prosecutor is seeking a $10,000 fine for the 45th president and his co-defendants, as well as another $10,000 for his legal team. These fines are in response to what James calls ”frivolous and sanctionable” motions.
This move is part of James’ ongoing $250 million civil fraud suit against Trump and his associates. The suit alleges that they provided false and misleading valuations of Trump’s business assets, inflating their worth by billions of dollars.
The Democrat prosecutor accuses Trump’s legal team of persistently making the same arguments, despite them being rejected by the courts multiple times. James emphasizes that the state court even deemed some of these arguments as “borderline frivolous” and criticizes the defendants’ “sophisticated” counsel, stating that they “should have known better.”
While two motions are still awaiting a ruling as they were recently filed in August, James is determined to hold Trump accountable for his alleged fraudulent actions.
The attorney general’s lawsuit follows a comprehensive three-year investigation by her office, involving over 65 witnesses and the review of millions of pages of documents. This is a significant effort to uncover the truth.
Democrats Pursue Trump Before Election
Former President Trump, who is running for the White House again in 2024 and is the leading GOP candidate, vehemently denies any wrongdoing. His children, who were also named in the original lawsuit, share the same stance.
Trump has consistently labeled the multiple cases brought against him by Democrat prosecutors as politically motivated witch hunts. He has even made these indictments a central theme of his 2024 presidential campaign.
In a positive development for the Trump family, Ivanka Trump had her charges dismissed by an appeals court in June after initially being included in the civil suit.
On Aug. 30, Letitia James’ office requested the state court to determine if the defendants inflated asset values and used these exaggerated figures to defraud banks and insurers for personal gain.
According to James, Trump and his organization have fraudulently inflated his net worth by billions of dollars every year since 2011. This is a serious accusation.
“Since at least 2011, Defendants and others working on their behalf at the Trump Organization have falsely inflated by billions of dollars the value of many of the assets listed on Donald J. Trump’s annual statement of financial condition (‘SFC’), and hence his overall net worth for each of these years,” the court filing stated (pdf).
James further accuses Trump’s company of engaging in numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation in the preparation of his annual financial statements. These charges involve deceiving insurers, tax officials, and lenders by inflating property values, including his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
The court filing asserts that there is undisputed evidence to support the allegations, making a trial unnecessary. James believes that Trump should be held liable for fraud without a trial and that he and his sons should be removed from their positions in the family business. Additionally, she seeks a $250 million fine.
As part of her efforts, James also aims to ban the defendants from conducting business in New York and engaging in real estate acquisitions within the state for five years.
Judge Refuses Delay
On Sept. 6, Judge Arthur Engoron rejected Trump’s appeal to delay James’ lawsuit, which is scheduled for Oct. 2.
Trump’s legal team argued that many of the transactions mentioned in the lawsuit should be deemed inadmissible due to a statute of limitations, but the judge disagreed.
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