Former US President Donald Trump took his place in court for the second day to participate in the case that started with the accusation that he “defrauded many people and institutions in the real estate industry for years”.
Former US President Donald Trump arrived with a convoy of vehicles to the case at the state Supreme Court in Manhattan.
In his post about the case on his social media platform today, Trump blamed New York Attorney General Letitia James and repeated the claim that the case in question was filed with “political motivations”.
Arguing that it was “very unfair” for the attorney general to sue him with a very rarely used law, Trump said, “The law allows a politically elected partisan prosecutor to persuade a politically elected judge, who may be his friend, to destroy his political rival.”
Stating that the law in question may be constitutional but unjust, Trump used words such as “racist”, “incompetent”, “terrible”, “crazy” and “monster” about Attorney General James.
Claiming that his real estate holdings are valued 50 to 100 times higher than James’ court-determined values, Trump accused the attorney general of allowing violent crime to reach epidemic levels in New York and the state to be filled with illegal immigrants.
Today, the testimony of Donald Bender, Trump’s retired accountant, who sat on the witness stand yesterday as the first witness of the prosecution, and the hearing of other witnesses will continue.
In the indictment alleging that Trump, his three children and his company’s wealth was overstated by $3.6 billion, Attorney General James asked the judge to ban Trump and his children from establishing any more companies in New York and from purchasing commercial real estate for 5 years, and to pay a fine of $250 million. He demands that he be sentenced.
In the lawsuit filed on the charge that he “defrauded many individuals and institutions in the real estate industry for years”, Judge Arthur Engoron found that the former President and his company, the “Trump Organization”, defrauded banks, insurers and business people by overvaluing their assets and exaggerating their net worth in agreements and financing documents. He ruled that the relevant charges be heard in court.
In his 35-page decision, Engoron stated that Trump and his company and executives obtained loans at favorable terms and low insurance premiums by constantly lying about their annual financial situation.
If the charges are approved, control of some of Trump’s companies could be transferred to a court-appointed trustee.
The case is expected to last until mid-December.