New York State Attorney General Letitia James announced Wednesday (September 21) that she has filed extensive civil lawsuits against former US President Donald Trump, the Trump Organization and three of his children, Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, accusing them of fraud and misrepresentation, reports Politico. She also forwarded the file to the criminal justice system as well as to the American tax services.
Mme James, an elected Democrat who has been waging the legal iron for years against Mr. Trump, alleges that Mr. Trump’s financial statements from 2011 to 2021 included 200 false and misleading appraisals of 23 properties and assets, including residential buildings, of his property in Mar-a-Lago, Florida, and golf clubs, details the Wall Street Journal. According to the lawsuit, the Trump Organization provided these statements to insurers and banks, obtaining favorable borrowing benefits and terms.
“The complaint demonstrates that Donald Trump falsely inflated his net worth by billions of dollars to enrich himself unfairly and cheat the system”denounced Mme James at a press conference.
Letitia James “seeks to exact a high price from the former president and his company”estimates the New York Times. The prosecutor said she is seeking $250 million in reparations on behalf of New York State, as well as corporate bans for Donald Trump and his children Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and Eric Trump, which , explains the newspaper, “would be tantamount to driving them out of the state”.
Another legal thorn in the side of the billionaire
These lawsuits come when only a few weeks ago, testifying under oath before the prosecutor, Donald Trump had refused to answer hundreds of questions, traces the New York Times. They follow an investigation of more than three years triggered by the testimony in Congress of Michael Cohen, the former personal lawyer of Mr. Trump, recalls for his part the Wall Street Journal. In 2019, the council told US lawmakers that the billionaire, who was then president, frequently misrepresents his wealth to gain financial advantage.
This new lawsuit “aggravates legal problems” of the Republican, observes the New York Times. But she “may well not give him his most acute headache, as a series of other investigations and trials close in on him and various figures in his orbit”écrit Politico. American justice is already investigating his alleged efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, his role in the assault by his supporters on the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and his management of the presidential archives. Donald Trump has not yet been criminally prosecuted in any of these cases.
In a post on his Truth Social network on Wednesday, Trump called the case a “witch hunt”. As with every survey, notes the New York Times.