Trump Returns Fire Against NY AG Letitia James Over Net Worth Fraud Allegations: 'I Was Targeted'
Former President Donald Trump fired back Friday at claims he vastly overvalued his assets to get more favorable loan and insurance deals.
Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Trump, his sons Eric and Don Jr., and the Trump Organization.
James’s office said the figures it used cut Trump’s net worth by between 17 percent and 39 percent each year, with the biggest gap coming in 2014, when James’s office said Trump’s assets were worth $2.2 billion less than he claimed, according to CNN.
Trump lashed out at James Friday on Truth Social.
“IN THE NYS A.G. LETITIA JAMES CASE, I WAS TARGETED, GIVEN NO JURY, NO EXTENSIONS, NO COMMERCIAL DIVISION, NO CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS, NO ANYTHING!” Trump posted in his trademark all-caps messaging.
The former president continued his attack: “THE DEMOCRAT JUDGE HATES TRUMP WITH A PASSION. THE THING I HAVE IS A GREAT CASE BASED ON PHENOMENAL NUMBERS THAT SHOW A NET WORTH BILLIONS OF DOLLARS MORE THAN SHE VICIOUSLY & FALSELY CLAIMED, VERY LITTLE DEBT, BIG CASH, A POWERFUL DISCLAIMER CLAUSE, PAID OFF LOANS, NO DEFAULTS, ‘HAPPY’ BANKS, GREAT ASSETS.
“I WAS DEFAMED BY NYS – ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”
As noted by The New York Times, the case is in the phase where each side wants what is known as summary judgment – to have its way without a trial. Trump’s lawyers have filed papers to have the case thrown out, alleging that the incidents at the heart of the suit happened too long ago for Trump to be sued.
James’s office, however, claimed that its figures prove her case, according to CNN.
“Based on the undisputed evidence, no trial is required for the court to determine that defendants presented grossly and materially inflated asset values in the (statements of financial condition) and then used those SFCs repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers,” the attorney general’s office wrote.
“Notwithstanding defendants’ horde of 13 experts, at the end of the day, this is a documents case, and the documents leave no shred of doubt that Mr. Trump’s SFCs do not even remotely reflect the ‘estimated current value’ of his assets as they would trade between well-informed market participants.”
Trump’s lawyers see the issue rather differently.
“The [statements of financial condition] at issue were simply not misleading. Therefore, the Defendants are entitled to summary judgment as a matter of law,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
“The undisputed record further establishes his companies timely paid hundreds of millions of dollars in interest to their lenders and never defaulted on a loan or even been late on a loan payment during the entire 15+ year time period the NYAG has sought to scrutinize in this action.”
Trump said in a deposition that the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg mostly did that clerical work.
“I think he just uses good faith. I just – you know, you’d see a property and, I think, he looked at comparables perhaps. But I never went into it very much. I paid much less credence to this than you would even think,” Trump said.
Trump was asked about his role in developing the documents.
“Not much. They had the numbers. I’d see it mostly after it was completed that, you know, he gave me a rundown or give me in some cases like the statement, maybe an outline in some cases,” Trump said. “Don’t forget you’re talking about a lot of different statements over a lot of different years. From – I would say from 2015 on, because I started campaigning in 2015, as you know. I would say I had very little, if any, involvement. I just didn’t have very much involvement.”
Truth and Accuracy
We are committed to truth and accuracy in all of our journalism. Read our editorial standards.
