Trump and his children will appear in court in New York for fraud
Trump and his children will appear in court in New York for fraud
2023.01.07 12:17
Trump and his children will appear in court in New York for fraud
Budrigannews.com – Keeping the case on track for trial in October, a judge denied Donald Trump, his company, and three of his children’s requests to throw out New York’s $250 million lawsuit against them for allegedly deceiving banks and insurers for years about the value of the former president’s assets.
Friday, state court Justice Arthur Engoron denied the Trumps’ motion to dismiss the civil fraud suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
As part of the case, the judge has issued a number of rulings against the troubled former president. Engoron said on Friday that some defense claims made by Trump’s legal team were “borderline frivolous,” such as that the lawsuit was part of a huge political “witch hunt.”
Engoron wrote, “Here, sophisticated defense counsel should have known better.” As Trump had threatened earlier this week, the judge said that sanctioning Trump’s lawyers was “unnecessary” because the court had “made its point.”
As Trump pursues his campaign for reelection to the presidency in 2024, the ruling ensures that one of the most significant legal threats to his business will continue to be on voters’ minds. He is also the subject of federal investigations into how he handled classified documents and what he did in the aftermath of the attack on the US Capitol in 2021.
In September, James brought a lawsuit against Trump, the Trump Organization, and his three eldest children, Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Donald Trump Jr., who are all senior executives at the company. James said that they had been tampering with the value of Trump’s assets for years to make him richer.
The state says that the scheme helped Trump get better terms on loans and insurance and lower his tax bill, which led to illegal gains of at least $250 million.
A statement from Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, read, “We look forward to receiving a full and proper review of our arguments on appeal.” She made the statement.
Engoron has repeatedly rejected Trump’s primary defenses, including that James lacked legal standing to sue him, that the suit was politically motivated, and that his company’s accounting firm used disclaimers that alerted insurers and banks that his financial statements had not been audited.
In court documents, Trump argued that James had “essentially manufactured a case even though there is no demonstration of any actual harm (to the public or anyone else).” According to the filings, the “purported victims” are all “corporate titans fully capable of advancing their own considerable legal rights,” as the former president stated.
James said in a statement, “We sued Mr. Trump because we found that he engaged in years of extensive financial fraud to enrich himself and cheat the system.” The decision of today makes it abundantly clear that Donald Trump is liable for his actions in court and is not above the law.
In a case brought by the Manhattan District Attorney in collaboration with James, two Trump businesses and the Trump Organization’s longtime chief financial officer were found guilty of tax-related crimes. This ruling allows the civil case to continue.
A remarkable level of outside oversight of the former president’s business was achieved when the state attorney general won an earlier injunction prohibiting Trump’s company from disposing of or transferring significant assets during the case without prior notice to a court-appointed monitor. That ruling has been appealed by Trump.
As part of the investigation that preceded the lawsuit, Trump and his children were all deposed. However, the former president did not respond to any questions other than to confirm his name and pleaded his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
James claimed that despite the fact that her case is civil, she had informed Manhattan federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service that she believed her investigation had revealed federal criminal liability.
