In a series of posts to social media over the weekend, former President Donald Trump slammed the New York civil fraud case against him as a judge considers whether he will pay the state hundreds of millions of dollars in damages after he was found guilty of inflating the value of his real estate.
The pending decision from Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron poses a significant risk to Trump’s New York empire, which could ban his business operations in the state and impose a hefty financial penalty of $250 million or more.
Facing another potential financial blow, Trump could be in dire straits as Engoron’s ruling comes on the heels of a separate judgment issued last week in the defamation case brought by author E. Jean Carroll, in which Trump was ordered to pay $83 million in damages.
New York prosecutors in the civil fraud case gave their closing arguments on Jan. 25, and Judge Engoron said he would try to deliver his bench ruling by Wednesday, although there was no set timeline for him to do so as a jury was not seated in the case.
Trump urged the federal court system to intervene in the “witch hunt” — a refrain he repeatedly uses to describe the litany of civil and criminal cases against him — and he defended the activities of the Trump Organization while proclaiming his innocence, saying he never did anything wrong.
“It is a great company that has been slandered and maligned by this politically motivated Witch Hunt. It is very unfair, and I call for help from the highest Courts in New York State, or the Federal System, to intercede. THIS IS NOT AMERICA,” Trump railed.
In other posts to his Truth Social platform, Trump continued to express beef with Engoron, who is overseeing the civil case, but he saved his most bitter attack for New York Attorney General Letitia James, the first Black woman to hold the position, who brought the unprecedented legal action against the former president in January 2022.
Trump…
Read the full article here
