Judge holds Trump liable for fraud in civil case

Today, the judge declared the former US president Donald Trump responsible for a charge of fraud in a civil proceeding promoted by the State Attorney’s Office NYwho accused him of pumping up his company’s assets for years in order to get better credit terms and other economic benefits.

In a decision issued Tuesday afternoon, the judge Arthur Engoron settled with prosecutors who last week asked for partial summary judgment on the main charge in the case, that of fraud against Trump, his children Donald Jr. and EricTrump Organization and several partners, leaving six more crimes to be resolved at the trial scheduled for October 2.

In the document, Engoron believes that the Prosecutor’s Office, led by prosecutor Letitia James, “showed (that there is) responsibility” of the accused, among whom Allen Weisselberg and Jeffrey McConneytwo former executives of the Trump Organization, and ordered all of them to have their business licenses “revoked” in New York.

In the next ten days, the defendants must recommend a maximum of three people to manage the dissolution of the companies associated with these revoked licenses, according to an opinion reviewed by EFE.

Engoron points out that Trump made statements that tripled the actual size of his apartment in Trump Tower and believes that “a deviation of such size, by an entrepreneur who has been exaggerating in his own living space for decades, can only be considered a fraud.” .

It seems that last week at the hearing, the judge already sided with the arguments of the prosecutors, who reminded that Trump exaggerated his assets in one year in 2.2 billion dollarsand angrily stated that “you cannot make false statements (about financial status) and use them in business”.

First court failure

Limiting the Trumps’ ability to do business in the state was one of the goals of a lawsuit filed by prosecutor James in late 2022, in which authorities are seeking a fine of 250 million dollars (228 million euros), which is an issue that is expected to be resolved at the trial next Monday.

Judge Engoron also rejected a parallel motion by Trump’s defense, which asked that all charges be dismissed, and ordered sanctions 7500 dollars for five lawyers of the former president.

The decision represents a double judicial blow for Trump, who despite being the clear favorite Republican Party for the upcoming White House election, he faces a long list of causes in the coming months, which could complicate his campaign.

In addition to this case, which goes to trial in less than a week, Trump faces four separate criminal cases next year covering a total of 91 crimes.

Most of these crimes are related to the alleged handling of classified materials at his home in Florida (40 charges) and allegedly illegal payments to a porn actress during his presidential campaign in New York (34 charges).

He also faces 13 charges related to Georgia’s state organized crime law for attempting to overturn election results and 4 other charges in Washington DC. linked to the same issue, due to their false claims of electoral fraud and more shenanigans.