Donald Trump’s real estate empire is on shaky grounds as New York Attorney General Letitia James brings her biggest civil lawsuit yet against the 77-year old former president.
So what is Trump is being sued for, and who is the woman taking him on?
Who is Letita James?
Since becoming the first woman and first Black person to take the role of New York’s Attorney General in 2018, James has led a staff of 1700 individuals and over 700 assistant attorneys general, bringing down former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo in a sexual misconduct investigation and suing Donald Trump on multiple occasions.
James is widely known for repeatedly challenging former President Donald Trump’s administration. When she was elected in 2018, James had a message for Trump:
“He should know that we here in New York – and I, in particular – we are not scared of you,” she said.
She promised to shine “a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings, and every dealing, demanding truthfulness at every turn”.
In interviews in late 2021, James said that not pursuing evidence of wrongdoing by Trump would have been a “dereliction of my duty.”
“I make no apologies, because this is who I am, and this is what I do,” James said.
Last year, she oversaw an investigation that led to criminal charges against Trump’s company and its chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.
In her campaign video for Governor of New York back in late 2021, she famously said: “I’ve sued the Trump administration 76 times. But who’s counting?”
She lost to fellow democrat Kathy Hochul — who is the first woman to serve as Governor of New York.
Last year, James suspended her campaign to run again for New York Governor, saying she wanted to “finish the job” with the investigations she was working on — which included an inquiry into the NRA and fraudulent financial practices of Donald Trump.
James is also an outspoken advocate of LGBTQ+ rights. In June, following the US Supreme Court’s decision to allow a wedding web designer to discriminate against LGBTQ+ folks by refusing to provide services for same-sex weddings, James released a statement, expressing her disappointment.
“This disappointing decision to allow some businesses to ignore laws protecting LGBTQ+ couples from discrimination will have chilling effect,” she said.
“Once again, we have seen this court roll back the progress of the past and strip away rights and protections. I will always stand up and fight for the rights of all New Yorkers, because in our state we know that love is love.”
What is the lawsuit she’s bringing against Trump?
In September last year, James’ office sued Trump, his sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organisation. The Attorney General accused them of committing large-scale fraud for more than a decade while pursuing loans from banks.
Last week, New York judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and his company were guilty of using fraudulent methods to value his properties over a number of years.
“The documents here clearly contain fraudulent valuations that defendants used in business,” Engoron wrote in his ruling.
Engoron found that Trump and his company are liable for overvaluing their properties, inflating the value of his holdings by hundreds of millions of dollars and misrepresenting Trump’s worth by billions while seeking bank loans.
In his summary ruling, Engoron cited the Palm Beach Assessor valuation of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club at between US$18 million and $28 million for each year from 2011 to 2021 — the values which Trump paid local property taxes.
During that decade, however, Trump had valued the property at between US$328 million and US$714 million on his annual statements of financial conditions.
Engoron found Trump’s company overstated their property valuations by billions, and his wealth by as much as US$3.6 billion.
Engoron ordered the defendants’ New York business certificates canceled — meaning the business licenses of Trump and his adult sons, Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump have been revoked.
Barring them from doing business in the state of New York had been a major goal of James’ when she became Attorney General.
This week, James continues her lawsuit against Trump — this time, focusing on the allegations in the fraud case related to falsification of business records, distributing false financial statements, insurance fraud and conspiracy.
Trump and his company could be fined up to $US250 million.
What has Trump said about James?
On Monday, Trump appeared at the Manhattan courthouse, saying it had been “agreed in Court” that his Florida private club is worth “50 to 100 times” what James stated in her lawsuit.
Trump also attacked Engoron, describing the 74-year old democrat as a ‘rogue’ judge and calling him “deranged” in a social media post.
The following day, he criticised James, calling her “grossly incompetent”, a “fraud”, “biased and corrupt.”
“Her numbers are fraudulent,” he said outside the courtroom Tuesday.
“She should probably read this and at a minimum, she should start looking for the murderers and the criminals, the violent criminals’ and the ‘illegal migrants pouring into our city and state.”
“This is a continuation of the single greatest witch hunt of all time. It’s a scam. It’s a sham. There was no crime. The crime is against me.’
In the past, Trump has called James “a renegade and out of control prosecutor”, and dismissed the case as “crazy” and a “witch-hunt.”
On Truth Social this week, Trump went on a bit of a messy rant:
“Now that it has been agreed in Court that Mar-a-Lago is WORTH 50 to 100 times the Value the Racist & Incompetent Attorney General of New York State, Letitia “Peekaboo” James, ascribed to it (18 Million Dollars), & likewise other assets that were valued crazily low by this “Monster” that has allowed Violent Crime in New York to reach EPIDEMIC levels, and dangerous illegal migrants to roam free all over our State, we hope the Judge will TERMINATE his first ruling of fraud in that he was given false and ridiculous information by the Trump Deranged Lunatic, A.G. James.”
On Tuesday, he was at it again: “In actuality, I am WORTH FAR MORE than the numbers put down on the Financial Statements, not less. In addition, there is a far reaching and professionally drawn Disclaimer Clause boldly stated on the FIRST PAGE OF THE DOCUMENT. This entire case should be thrown out and dismissed. The A.G. should be reprimanded and sanctioned for bringing this case with its FAKE LOW VALUES, in order to make me look bad. Election Interference!’
In the past few hours, Engoron has issued a gag order barring Trump and anyone involved in the case from posting information about his staff.
As Trump continues to maintain his innocence, all eyes remain on James.