File photo: Former US president and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump speaks at a 2024 presidential campaign rally in Dubuque
by Jonathan Stempel and Karen Freifeld
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Donald Trump and his family business were found liable for fraud by a New York judge on Tuesday in a civil court case brought by the US state’s attorney general who accuses him of ex-president of having artificially inflated his income and assets.
The decision by Judge Arthur Engoron in Manhattan should make it easier for New York State Attorney Letitia James to determine the amount of damages that Donald Trump and his co-defendants will have to pay during the trial, which is scheduled to begin Monday next.
Letitia James filed a lawsuit against Donald Trump in September 2022, accusing him, some of his children and the Trump Organization of lying for years about the value of property and his personal fortune in order to benefit from bank loans and favorable insurance contracts.
The former US president and his co-defendants argued that they never committed fraud and that the disputed transactions were profitable. They plan to appeal the decision.
“Today’s outrageous decision is completely disconnected from the facts and current laws,” Christopher Kise, one of Donald Trump’s lawyers, said in a statement. “President Trump and his family will use every avenue available to correct this miscarriage of justice.”
Donald Trump, the big favorite in the race for the Republican Party nomination for the November 2024 presidential election, denounced the accusations against him on his social network.
“This is a political war (led by the Democrats) and a witch hunt on a level never seen before,” he wrote. “If they can do this to me, they can do it to you!”
(Reporting by Karen Freifeld, Jack Queen and Jonathan Stempel in New York; French version by Camille Raynaud)
2023-09-27 04:45:19
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