New York Attorney General Letitia James said on Feb. 20 that she’s prepared to seize former President Donald Trump’s buildings and assets if he can’t pay the penalty imposed in the state’s civil fraud case.
The former president was recently ordered to pay nearly $355 million and barred from doing business in New York state for three years by state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron.
During an interview with ABC News, Ms. James said that it was “really not my business” if President Trump doesn’t have the money to pay the penalty, while also noting that she has her eyes on the Trump Building in Lower Manhattan.
“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day,” she added, referring to the Trump Building.
President Trump’s attorneys have vowed to appeal the case; he and his attorneys have described the case as a “political witch hunt” and the verdict as “manifest injustice.”
Throughout the trial, the Trump team accused Justice Engoron of judicial malpractice, and the president has asserted that he should be the one being awarded damages.
Responding to the Trump camp’s intention to appeal and their sentiment, Ms. James expressed confidence that her office would prevail.
“I cannot be paralyzed by fear. And I cannot allow anyone to bully me into silence. And I cannot allow anyone to have a chilling effect on the work that I do and this office does each and every day,” Ms. James said.
President Trump’s legal team has argued that no fraud occurred and that the state attorney general failed to prove intent to defraud. He has said that there were “no victims because the banks made a lot of money.”
In her comments on Feb. 20, Ms. James rejected such arguments, reportedly saying that financial fraud isn’t a victimless crime. The attorney general reportedly said that leveling the playing field is within her wheelhouse and that if the average person isn’t allowed to inflate the value of their assets to secure loans, then neither should President Trump.
Ms. James brought the lawsuit against President Trump and his co-defendants in 2022. Justice Engoron found President Trump liable and ruled that he inflated his assets to get better loans weeks before the trial began.
In addition to civil fraud cases, President Trump faces four criminal cases ahead of the 2024 elections. These include a case related to “hush money” payments before the 2016 elections, two cases related to his attempts to challenge the results of the 2020 elections, and a case related to the handling of classified documents.
President Trump recently called for an end to the legal cases against him, alleging that they amount to election interference against the Republican 2024 presidential front-runner.
“This is communism and a threat to democracy,” he declared in a post on Truth Social on Feb. 19.
“All political prosecutions of your favorite president, me, must stop immediately. We are in the middle of an election, perhaps the most important election in the history of our country, and these radical left lunatic prosecutors and judges are not allowed to be doing this,” he said.
“We are turning into a communist country in many ways,” he said.
Drawing parallels with Mr. Navalny’s plight, President Trump asserted that he’s facing several trials “all because of the fact that I’m in politics.”
