New York AG seeks over $370M from Trump, co-defendants for ‘ill-gotten gains’


Read this article for free!

Plus get unlimited access to thousands of articles, videos and more with your free account!

Please enter a valid email address.

New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking over $370 million from former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants in his highly publicized civil fraud trial.

James demanded the financial penalty as repayment for profits she argues were illicitly gained, according to a document filed to the court on Friday.

The attorney general argues, “The conclusion that defendants intended to defraud when preparing and certifying Trump’s SFCs is inescapable.”

TRUMP VISITS MANHATTAN COURT TO BLAST NYAG CASE, PRAISES APPELLATE RULING IN HIS FAVOR

Letitia James sits in courtroom audience of Trump trial

New York Attorney General Letitia James sits in the courtroom during the fraud trial of former President Donald Trump. (Dave Sanders-Pool/Getty Images)

Back in September, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization had committed fraud while building his real estate empire, by deceiving banks, insurers and others, by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

“The myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation,” James wrote in the Friday document.

Trump and his family have denied any wrongdoing and have claimed that the former president has repeatedly said his assets were actually undervalued.

TRUMP’S GAG ORDER CHALLENGE IN NEW YORK AG LETITIA JAMES’ CIVIL SUIT REJECTED

Donald Trump

Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he wraps up a campaign event in Waterloo, Iowa. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

“He ruled against me without knowing anything about me,” Trump said on the stand. “He called me a fraud, and he didn’t know anything about me.”

Last month, the New York State Appellate Division First Department rejected Trump’s challenge to the gag orders imposed by Engoron. 

The non-jury civil trial stems from James’ lawsuit against Trump and his businesses in the state.

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

New York Judge Arthur Engoran

Justice Arthur Engoron presides over the civil fraud trial of the Trump Organization at the New York State Supreme Court in New York City. (ERIN SCHAFF/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)

Following the ruling, Engoron imposed a partial gag order to prevent all parties from engaging in any verbal attacks against court staff after Trump criticized a member of the judge’s office on social media.

Engoron added that “personal attacks on members of my court staff are unacceptable, not appropriate” and warned they would not be tolerated.

Without naming the former president, Engoron was referring to a now-deleted Trump post on his Truth Social account about Engoron’s law clerk, Allison Greenfield.

Fox News Digital’s Stepheny Price and Maria Paronich contributed to this report.



Source link