An influential pollster and consultant sounded the alarm about New York Attorney General Letitia James’s filing judgments against former President Donald Trump in his $455 million civil fraud case.
“You’re going to create the greatest victimhood of 2024, and you’re going to elect Donald Trump,” he said.
Mr. Luntz has been criticized for his 2016 prediction that Democrat Hillary Clinton would win the presidency, but he also predicted correctly that the former president’s poll numbers would rise after he was indicted four separate times last year.
“If they take his stuff, he’s going to say that this is proof that the federal government and the establishment and the swamp in Washington and all the politicians across the country and the attorneys generals and all of this, that this is a conspiracy to deny him the presidency,” Mr. Luntz said, adding that the former president is “going to go up in the polls, just like he went up every single time they indicted him.”
He then issued a warning to Ms. James and Democrats in New York that “if you play politics on this—this is what the secretaries of state did in Colorado and what they did in, I believe, is Maine. His numbers went up in both states.”
“I’m almost speechless in how pathetic the opposition to Trump has been and how completely misguided and this is a perfect example of it,” he continued.
The former president has said that the four indictments, the civil fraud trial, and other cases against him are attempts by Democrats to wound him politically ahead of the 2024 election. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied wrongdoing in the civil fraud case, which he is trying to appeal and has March 25 deadline to do so.
Over the weekend, the former president on Truth Social questioned the legality of the cases against him.
Judgments Filed
Several judgments were entered by Ms. James with the Westchester County Clerk’s Office against the former president and his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, on March 6. The three judgments filed in the county by the attorney general against President Trump amounted to $243,326,767.10, $20,421,141.98, and $63,580,273.97.In Westchester County, just north of New York City, the former president’s company owns the Seven Springs estate and the Trump National Golf Course Westchester.
The registrations do not necessarily mean that seizures of the Westchester properties are imminent. Analysts say, however, they are a procedural step that would be necessary should Ms. James seek to seize them. The attorney general said in February that she would be prepared to take the former president’s properties if he cannot pay the civil fraud debt.
President Trump has until March 25 to come up with a bond amount or New York could potentially seize his assets. This past week, the former president said that he has $500 million in cash, adding that Judge Arthur Engoran “wanted to take it away from me, and that’s where and why he came up with the shocking number” for the fine.
President Trump warned that he might have to sell his assets at “fire sale prices” to post bond in the civil fraud case or to appeal the judgment. He also accused the judge of “trying to take my appellate rights away.”
