Trump overstated net worth by up to $2.2 billion, New York attorney general says
Former President Donald Trump overstated his net worth by between $812 million and $2.2 billion each year between 2011 and 2021, the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James claims in a filing made public Wednesday.
The allegations were raised in an Aug. 4 filing seeking a partial summary judgment in the office's 2022 lawsuit accusing members of the Trump family and Trump Organization executives of orchestrating an extensive, fraudulent scheme related to valuations of property and Trump's personal financial statements.
James' office is seeking $250 million and sanctions that would halt the company's operations in the state and drastically impair the ability of Trump, Eric Trump or Donald Trump Jr. to do business in New York.
The case is scheduled for trial in October, but James' office is asking a judge to first rule against the Trumps in one facet of the case, certain allegations related to fraud. If granted, other claims, including allegations related to falsification of records and issuing false financial statements, would still be considered at trial.
"No trial is required for the court to determine that defendants presented grossly and materially inflated asset values…repeatedly in business transactions to defraud banks and insurers," Andrew Amer, an attorney for James' office wrote in the filing.
A summary judgment motion argues that certain material facts are not in dispute, and as a result, the judge is already in a position to make a decision based on them — avoiding the need to raise them at trial.
A spokesperson for Donald Trump's legal team did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Trump's lawyers argued in separate filing Wednesday that the case should be dismissed. They said Trump received many of the loans at the heart of the allegations too long ago under the state's statute of limitations.
James' office argues in its filing that in order to rule in its favor, the judge must find that Trump's statements of financial condition were "false or misleading" from 2011 through 2021 — the years for which the state is suing — and that the statements were used "in the conduct of business transactions."
"The answer to both questions is a resounding 'yes' based on the mountain of undisputed evidence," the attorney general's office said in its filing.
This latest filing comes just as Trump's legal problems are mounting. On Aug. 24, Trump surrendered to authorities in Fulton County, Georgia, where he and 18 others are accused of racketeering in a criminal case related to their alleged efforts to overturn the results of the state's 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost. He is expected to enter a not guilty plea in that case, and denies wrongdoing.
Trump is also charged in three other criminal cases. In Manhattan, he entered a not guilty plea in April to 34 counts of falsification of business records. And he entered not guilty pleas this summer to charges in a pair of federal cases in which he's accused of 40 felony counts related to "willful retention" of national security information after leaving the White House, and four felony counts related to his alleged effort to thwart the peaceful transfer of power after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020.
Trump maintains his innocence and has accused prosecutors from every office pursuing him of doing so out of political animus.