New York AG Letitia James' Penalty Request Jumps From $250M to $370M in Trump Civil Fraud Case

There have been many twists and turns throughout the course of the civil fraud trial against former President Donald Trump, which began in September 2022 when New York Attorney General Letitia James filed the suit claiming that Trump and his family "enriched themselves through fraud."

My colleague Joe Cunningham wrote that "...:James accused the former president, his family, and his organization of “persistent and repeated business fraud.”

The civil lawsuit, filed Wednesday in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, seeks a $250 million judgment and a prohibition on any of the Trumps leading a company in the state of New York.
Among other allegations, the suit claims that the former president’s Florida estate and golf resort, Mar-a-Lago, was valued as high as $739 million, but should have been valued at around one-tenth that amount, at $75 million. The suit says that higher valuation was “based on the false premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed for residential use even though Mr. Trump himself signed deeds donating his residential development rights and sharply restricting changes to the property.”
James is referring her findings to federal prosecutors in Manhattan, who could possibly open a criminal investigation into bank fraud, according to a footnote in the lawsuit.

But a newly filed brief by the AG brings us another surprise: James just requested that the judge overseeing the case raise the $250 million judgment amount against Trump to $370 million because she says "the trial had demonstrated that he had gained that amount through unlawful conduct":

The sum was well over the $250 million that the attorney general, Letitia James, had estimated in the fall of 2022, when she sued Mr. Trump, accusing him of inflating his net worth to obtain favorable treatment from banks and insurers.
....The attorney general’s penalty request came in a post-trial brief filed on Friday.

But the monetary penalty isn't the only punishment the NY AG is seeking against him:

Along with the steep financial penalty, Ms. James, a Democrat, is asking that Mr. Trump, a Republican, be barred from participating in New York’s real estate industry and from running any company in the state.

Trump's lawyers have pushed back on what James is asking to be imposed:

In a statement, a lawyer for Mr. Trump, Christopher M. Kise, called the amount 'unconscionable, unsupported by the evidence, untethered from reality and unconstitutionally excessive."

The Trump Organization also released a statement:

A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said that “every single member of the New York business community, no matter the sector, should be gravely concerned with this gross overreach and brazen attempt by the attorney general to exert limitless power where no private or public harm has ever been established.”

Keep in mind that this isn't a jury trial, but up to a judge, Arthur Engoron. Nearly a year after the NY AG filed the civil suit against Trump, in Sept. 2023, Judge Engoron found that Trump:

...had committed fraud for years to build his fortune....[and] that Trump and his company defrauded insurers, banks, and other business partners by massively overstating the value of his assets and net worth. Trump, Engoron ruled, had gone far beyond mere puffery and used fake values to get lower loan and insurance rates.

With that squared away, as my colleague Streiff pointed out, the judge's primary "focus" is on the amount of the penalty:

This ruling comes just days before the trial begins and is in response to both Trump and James seeking summary judgment on the facts. When the bench trial starts, Judge Engoron will focus on deciding how much of the $250 million in restitution James has demanded Trump will have to pay.

The NY civil case is expected to draw to a close at the end of January, with closing arguments beginning next week. We'll keep you posted on the outcome. One sure way to combat the nonsense, misstatements, and incompetence from the Biden administration, Democrat Party, and their allies in the legacy media is to support RedState through our VIP subscription program. Day in and day out, our contributors make sure to bring you all the damning details that the mainstream media either can’t or won’t — and having the protective shield of VIP over our work lets us pour out as much truth as readers can handle. We look forward to welcoming you to the team of loyal supporters in VIP!