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Justice surrounds Donald Trump

Former president responds to New York attorney general's fraud lawsuit as Justice Department accesses Mar-a-Lago documentation.

Donald Trump

Donald Trump / Cordon Press.

Published by
Alejandro Baños

Donald Trump defended the legality of all his businesses and properties and lashed out at U.S. Attorney James after filing a lawsuit against him. "It's a self-serving witch hunt," the former president said in an interview on Fox News. Separately, the Trump Organization considered the allegations reflected in the lawsuit as "unfounded" and denied having committed any wrongdoing.

For her part, Trump's lawyer Alina Habba in statements to CNN, associated the lawsuit to the "political agenda" of the New York Attorney General's Office and not to "facts":

The lawsuit focused on the facts nor the law rather, it is solely focused on advancing the Attorney General's political agenda. It is abundantly clear that the Attorney General's Office has exceeded its statutory authority by prying into transactions where absolutely no wrongdoing has taken place.

Sued for fraud

The New York Attorney General's Office filed a civil lawsuit against the former president and his three eldest children (Donald Jr., Ivanka and Erik) for allegedly committing fraud offenses. Separately, Trump's corporate accountant Allen Weisselberg is also named in the lawsuit.

According to the indictment by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a member of the Democratic Party, Trump and his first-born children inflated the value of several of their large properties and lowered the tax bill to enrich themselves. These properties include the Fifth Avenue building in New York, the Wall Street skyscraper or the Mar-a-Lago residence.

James noted that the former president and his children committed more than 200 frauds over more than ten years as found in the Trump Organization's annual financial reports.

In the lawsuit, prosecutor James argued that the Trump Organization (with the former president and his three sons as top executives of the corporation) overvalued the properties in order to deceive insurers and financial institutions to obtain more suitable policies:

The financial statements were grossly exaggerated, grossly inflated, objectively false and therefore fraudulent and illegal. These acts of fraud and misrepresentation were similar in nature, were committed by the senior management of the Trump Organization as part of a common effort for each annual return, and were approved at the highest levels of the Trump Organization, including by Mr. Trump.

250 million

The attorney general asked Trump and those close to him to pay $250 million, an estimated figure for the money they allegedly defrauded. In addition, it also requests oversight of the Trump Organization's accounting for the next decade and that the former president and his corporation be barred from borrowing from New York institutions for at least five years.

Letitia James, who is immersed in her re-election bid against Republican candidate Michael Henry, already based her 2018 election campaign on accusations of the former president. She is now fighting to keep her post as New York Attorney General.

Investigation of documents seized at Mar-a-Lago

Another of the open cases against Donald Trump is the Mar-a-Lago raid. The former president secured Raymond Dearie as an independent expert to review the investigation documentation and prevent manipulation of the case. Despite this, the Department of Justice (DoJ) once again has access to the documentation after the Court of Appeals unsealed Judge Aileen Cannon's hold on the files.

The Department of Justice appealed the independent review of the Mar-a-Lago case. Now, the Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the DoJ because of the public interest in the investigation.

Trump's close circle also under investigation

Last Monday, the FBI seized the cell phone of Mike Lindell, CEO of My Pillow and a prominent Donald Trump supporter and ally, in order to obtain information and possible compromising messages from the former president.

Lindell sued the Department of Justice for violating his constitutional rights by claiming that his cell phone was illegally seized. You do not want them to review stored data because it is personal or work-related.

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