Trump should be barred from New York real estate industry, fined $370 million, New York Attorney General Letitia James says
Donald Trump made his name in New York real estate, and he plastered it on towers, plazas and skating rinks for half a century.
Now, the state's attorney general wants to take it down and bar him from ever again working in the industry, at least in New York.
In a filing Friday before closing arguments in Trump's civil fraud trial, lawyers for New York Attorney General Letitia James said they also want Trump and other defendants billed $370 million for "ill-gotten gains," plus additional interest. The filing, a sort of preview of the arguments scheduled for Jan. 11, claims "the myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation."
The $370 million figure is a significant increase from the $250 million clawback James' office initially said it was seeking when it filed suit against the Trumps in September 2022.
A New York judge found Trump, his two adult sons, their company, and two former executives liable for a decade of fraud in September. The trial in the case, on allegations related to conspiracy, falsification of business records and insurance fraud, ran from October through early December.
James' office argues in its filing that it proved Trump and the company purposefully juiced their estimates of property values — and his overall net worth — in financial statements used to get unusually favorable deals on loans and insurance.
During the trial, the state's lawyers showed internal corporate spreadsheets and communications that they said bolstered their case of a yearslong, coordinated effort to vastly misrepresent Trump's wealth.
"Direct evidence from multiple witnesses establishes Trump made known his desired target net worth each year….which his CFO and Controller then dutifully set out to hit by reverse-engineering the asset values," James' attorneys wrote in Friday's filing.
They said Trump "failed to present any legally relevant response to the People's proof."
Christopher Kise, an attorney for Trump, said in a text message to CBS News that the request for $370 million by New York Attorney General Letitia James is "unconscionable, unsupported by the evidence, untethered from reality, and unconstitutionally excessive."
In a filing Friday, lawyers for Trumps wrote that "The Attorney General has woefully failed to prove her case and is not entitled to any of the relief sought in this action."
Trump and his co-defendants have vehemently denied the allegations. During testimony in November, he accused James and Judge Arthur Engoron of targeting him unfairly.
In addition to the lifetime New York real estate ban for Trump and the former executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConney, James' office is also seeking five-year bans for Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump.
Engoron's final ruling in the case is expected weeks after the Jan. 11 closing arguments.