- Trump criticizes NY Attorney General
- Denied full closing arguments
- Faces sanctions for property value manipulation
Former US President Donald Trump attacked New York Attorney General Letitia James in the concluding arguments of his civil fraud trial.
Permission was denied for Trump to deliver the complete closing arguments on Thursday because he neglected to sign off on restrictions prohibiting him from using the courtroom as an electoral platform.
At this time, the former president is the leading candidate for the Republican nomination in an effort to unseat incumbent Joe Biden in the November presidential election.
After his attorney had concluded, Judge Arthur Engoron, who is determining the appropriate sanctions to be levied against Trump in light of a previous ruling that he and his company fraudulently manipulated property values, permitted Trump to offer brief supplementary remarks.
Trump seized the opportunity to criticize the attorney general of New York state, stating, “They are determined to ensure that I never win another election.” The [general counsel] despises Trump… “Being unable to discuss that would be a disservice.”
James filed suit, seeking a judgment of approximately $370 million and a permanent injunction against Trump from operating within the state’s real estate sector.
“We have a situation in which I am an innocent man,” Trump continued, adding, “I believe you must go beyond the bounds. A candidate for office is persecuting me.”
However, in response to Engoron’s attempt to interrupt Trump by cautioning him to conclude his remarks, the former president stated, “You have your own agenda; you cannot listen for more than one minute.”
The judge instructed Christopher Kise, Trump’s attorney, to “regulate your client” in light of Trump’s declaration.
In an effort to regain the White House, Trump is currently participating in a series of criminal and civil proceedings. Among these are the trial and a conspiracy to annul the 2020 election, among other allegations of rape.
Engoron expressed skepticism on the last day of the trial regarding Kise’s contention that Trump ought not to face penalties for purportedly manipulating the values of his properties, on the grounds that lenders and insurance companies continued to generate profits.
Engoron said “evidence of harm” is not a prerequisite.
State attorneys have spent the duration of the trial attempting to establish that Trump consistently overvalued a number of the golf clubs, structures, and other assets he owned prior to entering politics.
Trump conceded in November of the previous year that he had furnished erroneous property valuations.
James’s office stated in a filing, “The numerous deceptive schemes they utilized to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so egregious that they belie an innocent explanation.”
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James’s team contended, in one instance presented in court, that Trump determined the value of his Mar-a-Lago in Florida based on “asking prices” as opposed to actual sales prices.
“Defendants added a 30% premium from 2011 to 2015 on account of the property being a ‘completed [commercial] facility,'” according to the filing.
However, Kise, Trump’s attorney, contended that although Trump’s corporate financial statements might contain errors, such errors do not “prove the existence of fraud.”
Further, Trump is slated to appear in court in Washington in March on charges of conspiring to rig the 2020 presidential election and in May for appropriating vast quantities of highly classified documents from his personal possessions subsequent to his resignation.
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