The attorney general of New York, Letitia James, is calling for an immediate ruling in her civil lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, alleging fraud during his real estate ventures. In court documents released today, James urged Judge Arthur Engoron to issue a verdict endorsing her claim that Trump and his company deceived banks and business partners by providing false financial statements about his wealth and asset values. The judge has scheduled a hearing on September 22 to consider James’ request. The lawsuit, seeking $250 million in penalties and a ban on Trump conducting business in New York, is set to go to trial on October 2 in Manhattan. Even if a ruling is made on the fraud claim, Engoron would still oversee a non-jury trial for other claims in the lawsuit if they are not resolved.
Messages requesting comment were sent to Trump’s lawyers and a spokesperson for the Trump Organization. Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in the upcoming presidential election, has characterized the lawsuit as a politically motivated “Witch Hunt” spearheaded by James and other Democrats.
This lawsuit, focusing on Trump’s pre-presidential life as a businessman, is just one of the legal challenges he faces as he aims to return to the White House. Over the past five months, Trump has been indicted four times, including charges of plotting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia and Washington, D.C., hoarding classified documents in Florida, and falsifying business records related to hush money payments in Manhattan. Some of Trump’s criminal trials are scheduled to coincide with the busy presidential primary season.
To reach a ruling, Judge Engoron only needs to address two key questions presented by James’ office: whether Trump’s annual financial statements were false or misleading, and whether he and the Trump Organization utilized those statements in business transactions. Andrew Amer, special litigation counsel for James, stated in a 100-page motion for summary judgment that the answer to both questions is a resounding “yes” based on the substantial undisputed evidence in the case. Amer argued that no trial is necessary to establish that Trump, the Trump Organization, and other defendants inflated asset values in financial statements and used them repeatedly to defraud banks and insurers.
Amer emphasized that the foundation of the case rests on the documents themselves, which unequivocally demonstrate that Trump’s statements of financial condition do not accurately reflect the true value of his assets. Donald Jr. and Eric Trump, Trump’s children who have held executive positions in the company, are also named as defendants in the lawsuit, along with other high-ranking Trump Organization officials.
Ivanka Trump was initially included as a defendant but was dismissed from the case in June by a state appeals court due to the state’s statute of limitations.
James initiated the lawsuit against Trump in September 2022, alleging that he and his company falsified annual statements of financial interest provided to banks, insurers, and others for at least a decade. According to James, these statements artificially inflated Trump’s net worth by billions of dollars, deceiving banks, insurers, and others about the value of assets such as golf courses, hotels, and the Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida. She dubbed this alleged scheme “The art of the steal,” playing off the title of Trump’s 1987 memoir, “The Art of the Deal.”
In support of the fraud claim, James’ office cited evidence showing that Trump exaggerated his net worth by up to 39%, or over $2 billion, in some years. The office also highlighted Trump’s deceptive practices, including inflating the size and value of his properties in Florida and New York, artificially increasing the value of unsold condominiums and rental spaces, and making false claims about his capacity to develop certain land, such as constructing additional homes on his Scottish golf course without proper approval from the local government.
Trump was questioned for seven hours at James’ office in April, answering questions in contrast to a deposition the previous year, where he refused to respond to all but a few procedural inquiries, invoking his Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination over 400 times. Although Trump is not expected to testify in court, video recordings of his depositions may be played.
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