Because the case is civil and not criminal, there is no threat of jail time.
New York:
A New York judge is expected to hand down a ruling on Friday that could unravel Donald Trump’s business empire and force him to pay up to $370 million in damages over fraud charges.
He is accused of illegally inflating his wealth and manipulating the value of his properties to obtain more favorable terms for bank loans or insurance.
Because the case is civil and not criminal, there is no threat of jail time.
If Trump is held accountable, as is widely expected, the amount the former president and his companies will have to pay will be revealed in a judge’s final order.
Trump has used his legal woes to anger his supporters and denounce Democratic rival Joe Biden, repeating that legal action is “just a way to hurt me in the election.”
The civil fraud trial is one of several facing Trump as he seeks to return to the White House, including covering up hush-money allegations and conspiring to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking $370 million from Trump to recoup his alleged unfair advantage and bar him from doing business in the state.
Trump built his public profile as a real estate developer and businessman in New York and used it as a springboard into the entertainment industry and eventually the presidency.
– Legal risks are increasing –
Trump has repeatedly attacked James, calling her a “crazy person” and slandered Judge Arthur Engoron, who will decide the case without a jury, saying he is “out of control.”
In highly technical testimony, the court heard that in one case Trump assessed the value of his exclusive club in Florida, Mar-a-Lago, by using “asking price” rather than actual sales price for comparison.
“From 2011 to 2015, the defendants added a 30% premium because the property was a ‘completed (commercial) facility,'” prosecutors said, arguing that this illegally distorted its true value.
But Trump’s attorney, Chris Kiss, said there was “no clear and available evidence of Donald Trump’s intent.”
Kise acknowledged that there may have been errors in Trump’s corporate financial statements, but there were no errors that “would lead to a conclusion that there was fraud.”
The ruling would cap a whirlwind legal week for Trump.
In New York, Trump appeared before a trial where he faces charges of illegally covering up hush payments, the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
Trump’s lawyers are also representing him in Atlanta, Georgia, where he is accused of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election he lost to Biden.
On Thursday, the prosecutor in the case responded with thinly veiled anger to efforts to remove her from the case for misconduct, demonstrating that her relationship with another attorney on the case was above board.
Trump was scheduled to stand trial in Washington in March on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election, but the case has been delayed as he seeks to assert immunity in high courts.
The twice-impeached former president will go on trial in Florida in May on charges that he took a trove of highly classified documents among his personal belongings when he left office and obstructed officials from recovering them.
In January, a New York jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll after he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed him.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
