New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a written brief filed a week before closing arguments in her civil fraud trial against former President Donald Trump, has asked the judge in the case to fine Trump over $370 million to disgorge profits from what James says is a decade of fraudulent business conduct.
James also requested that Trump and his two former deputies at the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney, barred for life from participating in the New York real estate industry.
Two sides submitted written briefs Friday, ahead of closing arguments scheduled for Jan. 11.
Trump’s defense team said that in the 11 weeks of the trial, “The NYAG introduced no evidence that anyone relied on any alleged misrepresentation and/or that anyone was injured.”
The attorney general’s office, in their brief, said that “The conclusion that defendants intended to defraud when preparing and certifying Trump’s statements of financial condition is inescapable; the myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation.”
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Former President Donald Trump waits to take the witness stand during his civil fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Nov. 6, 2023, in New York.
Brendan Mcdermid/AP
The dueling arguments will be presented in court on Jan. 11 when the two sides deliver closing statements before Judge Arthur Engoron, who has already found Trump, his eldest sons, and his namesake family real estate business liable for repeated and persistent business fraud.
The defense argues that the state’s case is vague and has failed to prove any wrongdoing by the former president.
“There is no specificity in the record as to which Defendants, if any, are responsible for which conduct,” the defense filing said. “There is no clear and convincing evidence (or any evidence) that President Trump intentionally filed a misleading SFC,” referring to statements of financial condition the Trump Organization submitted to banks and insurance companies.
The state insisted it presented “direct evidence from multiple witnesses” establishing that Trump had a desired target net worth each year prior to assuming public office in 2017, “which his CFO and Controller then dutifully set out to hit by reverse-engineering the asset values in the SFC, a practice that continued under the leadership of Eric Trump and Donald Trump, Jr.,” their filing stated.
The closing briefs and arguments will guide Judge Engoron as he decides the remaining six causes of action against Trump and what, if any, financial penalty to impose.
The most recent opinion Engoron issued in the trial, on Dec. 18, denied Trump’s final request to throw out the case and signaled the judge’s skepticism about his defense team’s arguments, describing Trump’s claims as “bogus statements at best and fraud at worst.”
Source: abc news
