Fogbow

The New York attorney general is seeking more than $370 million from Donald Trump and his co-defendants and to bar the former president from doing business in the state, according to a post-trial brief filed Friday in Trump’s civil fraud trial.

New York Attorney General Letitia James argued that Trump and his co-defendants’ intent to defraud while preparing the former president’s financial statements was “inescapable,” seeking the repayment of $370 million in disgorgement, or “ill-gotten gains.”

“The myriad deceptive schemes they employed to inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation,” the attorney general wrote.

Judge Arthur Engoron has already ruled in a summary judgment ruling finding that Trump and his co-defendants were liable for persistent and repeated fraud. He also ordered the cancellation of Trump’s business certificates in New York. Trump has appealed that decision and the court has paused dissolving the companies.

Trump’s attorneys on Friday argued that Engoron should reject the allegations against Trump, writing in their briefs that most of the transactions in the attorney general’s complaint were beyond the statute of limitations, that Trump’s statements of financial condition did not contain material misstatements, and that the attorney general did not demonstrate any real-world impact.

“There is no evidence in the record that the terms or pricing of any of the subject loans would have been different based on the purported misstatements alleged by Plaintiff,” Trump’s lawyers wrote. “Not a single witness from any bank (or anywhere else) testified to this at trial.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James is calling for a $370 million fine against former President Donald Trump and his companies and a lifetime ban on him and two of his former company executives from the real estate industry in the state.

Attorneys from James' office requested the punishment in post-trial motions filed Friday in the Trump fraud case. They said that Trump owes $168 million of interest allegedly saved through fraud; $152 million from the sale of the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C., the site of one of Trump's hotels; $60 million through the transfer of the Ferry Point Golf Course contract; and $2.5 million from severance agreements for former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Howard Weisselberg and ex-Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney.

James also called for lifetime bans for Trump, Weisselberg and McConney from participation in the real estate industry as well as from serving as officers or directors in New York corporations or entities. The attorney general also asked for five-year bans for Trump's eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, with the same conditions.

RTH10260 wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 2:36 am IFF the FL resident actually speaks, it will be all about how NYC will lie in ashes once all companies have left the city after his conviction.

Seung Min Kim @seungminkim wrote: NEW YORK (AP) — Judge rescinds permission for former President Donald Trump to give his own closing argument at his civil fraud trial.

But he said Trump would have to limit his remarks to the boundaries that cover attorneys’ closing arguments: “commentary on the relevant, material facts that are in evidence, and application of the relevant law to those facts.”

He would not be allowed to introduce new evidence, “comment on irrelevant matters” or “deliver a campaign speech” — or impugn the judge, his staff, the attorney general, her lawyers or the court system, the judge wrote.

Trump attorney Christopher Kise responded that those limitations were unfair and said Trump could not agree to them.

On Wednesday, just a day before the last scheduled hearing in the case, court filings revealed how talks completely broke down between Trump’s lawyers and Justice Arthur F. Engoron.

Emails filed in court show that the judge tentatively approved Trump’s request that he make a formal appearance in court to make the case’s final argument on his own—as long as he’d follow the same rules his defense lawyers would.

“Closing arguments are for an advocate to comment on the evidence presented, on the relevant law, and on how the latter applies to the former to justify the result sought. Such arguments may not be used to testify, to introduce new evidence, to make a campaign speech, or to comment on irrelevant matters,” Engoron emailed Trump’s legal team on Tuesday afternoon.

The judge’s warnings came after months of Trump’s unhinged speeches outside the courtroom and social media posts in which the billionaire labeled the judge a leftist hack, insulted the judge’s law clerk, and dismissed the entire trial as an empty political persecution. At every turn, Trump asserted that his personal financial statements were clean as a whistle and that his properties were properly valued—even though evidence shown in court clearly proved otherwise, with an apartment magically tripling in size and fudged numbers scattered throughout.

So while Engoron entertained the idea of having Trump deliver his own closing argument, he wouldn’t let Trump turn his final speech into a theatrical soliloquy. Emails show that the judge met Trump’s latest ploy with cynicism and wariness.

“The limitations I am imposing, in my absolute discretion, are not subject to further debate. Take it or leave it,” Engoron wrote on Tuesday.

Christopher Kise, a former Florida solicitor general who was Trump’s lead defense lawyer at trial, initially indicated that Trump would indeed show up and speak. But when the judge pressed him to make clear that Trump would follow the rules, Kise shot back with the whininess that has become his trademark since the trial’s start in October.

“That is very unfair, your Honor,” he shot back. “You are not allowing President Trump, who has been wrongfully demeaned and belittled by an out of control, politically motivated Attorney General, to speak about the things that must be spoken about.”

But the judge wouldn’t have it.

“Dear Mr. Kise,” he wrote back midday Wednesday, “I won’t debate this yet again. Take it or leave it. Now or never. You have until noon, seven minutes from now. I WILL NOT GRANT ANY FURTHER EXTENSIONS.”

When Kise didn’t respond, the judge officially nixed the whole misadventure.

Maybenaut wrote: ↑Wed Jan 10, 2024 1:02 pm From the AP article:

But he said Trump would have to limit his remarks to the boundaries that cover attorneys’ closing arguments: “commentary on the relevant, material facts that are in evidence, and application of the relevant law to those facts.”

He would not be allowed to introduce new evidence, “comment on irrelevant matters” or “deliver a campaign speech” — or impugn the judge, his staff, the attorney general, her lawyers or the court system, the judge wrote.

Trump attorney Christopher Kise responded that those limitations were unfair and said Trump could not agree to them.

"I will consent to let Mr. Trump make a closing argument if, and only if, through counsel by 1/9/2024, and by himself, personally, on the record, just before he speaks, he agrees to limit his subjects to what is permissible in a counsel's closing argument, that is, commentary on the relevant, material facts that are in evidence, and application of the relevant law to those facts," Engoron wrote on Tuesday, a day before rescinding the offer.

"He may not seek to introduce new evidence," Engoron wrote. "He may not 'testify.' He may not comment on irrelevant matters. In particular, and without limitation , he may not deliver a campaign speech, and he may not impugn myself, my staff, plaintiff, plaintiff's staff, or the New York State Court System, none of which is relevant to this case, and all of which , except commenting on my staff, can be done, and is being done, in other forums. If Mr. Trump violates any of these rules, I will not hesitate to cut him off in mid-sentence and admonish him."

Engoron also noted that Trump is under a gag order preventing him from attacking his principal law clerk, which he vowed to enforce.

"If he continues to violate the rules, I will end his closing argument and prevent him from making any further statements in the courtroom," the email said. "If he violates the current gag order against him, I will immediately direct court officers to remove him from the courtroom forthwith and will fine him not less than $50,000."

"If he continues to violate the rules, I will end his closing argument and prevent him from making any further statements in the courtroom," the email said. "If he violates the current gag order against him, I will immediately direct court officers to remove him from the courtroom forthwith and will fine him not less than $50,000."

Documents obtained by CNN show that Trump and his legal team weren't willing to agree on terms set by a judge in regards to the former president being able to speak during closing arguments in his New York civil fraud trial and attempted to use the death of Melania Trump's mom to postpone the closing arguments. CNN's Katelyn Polantz reports.