The New York Attorney General asked a judge Tuesday to sanction and fine former President Donald Trump and his legal team for continuing to assert legal arguments the court has already struck down during the state’s civil fraud lawsuit against him—as Trump faces a growing number of legal challenges in both civil and criminal court.
New York Attorney General Letitia James speaks during a news conference, September 21, 2022, in New ... [+]
Attorney General Letitia James contends that Trump’s legal team has made the same arguments that her office doesn’t have standing to bring the case under state law on five separate occasions, despite the fact that the court has “soundly rejected” them in a court filing Tuesday.
James asked the judge to fine the defendants $10,000 collectively and to fine their lawyers an additional $10,000 collectively.
This comes four weeks before a trial in the case, which revolves around whether Trump and his company defrauded banks and business partners by lying or exaggerating the value of his properties on his financial statements.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and asked a judge to toss out the lawsuit.
The case began in September 2022, when James sued Trump, his family business and three of his adult children. James alleges that Trump and his company spent years prior to his time in the White House lying and inflating the value of their assets by billions of dollars in an effort to get lower interest rates and premiums to prop up his businesses. In 2014, James says Trump inflated his net worth by $2.2 billion. The lawsuit seeks $250 million in damages and seeks to bar the defendants from starting a business ever again. Last week, James asked the judge for an immediate verdict, ruling that Trump is liable for the fraud she’s accused him of without a trial. The judge scheduled a September 22 hearing to review that request. Trump has already been sanctioned by this court before: In February, the judge ordered him to pay $110,000 for failing to respond to a subpoena for documents.
This case is one of a number of legal challenges the former president faces. Trump has been criminally indicted four times: he was charged with trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in D.C. federal court and Georgia state court, faces dozens of charges for his handling of classified documents in Miami federal court, and was charged by Manhattan state prosecutors for allegedly falsifying business records in a hush money scheme. He is the first president to ever be indicted on criminal charges. Meanwhile, the Trump Organization was found guilty of criminal tax fraud in Manhattan state court last year, and the company’s CFO pleaded guilty.
New York AG asks judge to sanction Trump for rehashing failed legal arguments (CNBC)