New York Attorney General Letitia James, who based her unsuccessful gubernatorial campaign on prosecuting former President Donald Trump, recently increased the amount of money that the former president and his company should pay in the ongoing civil case to $370 million, up from the initial $250 million.
The sudden $120 million increase was included in a trial brief filed on Jan. 5, 2024, and comes as closing arguments are scheduled for Jan. 11, 2024.
🚨BREAKING NEWS: Morbidly Obese New York Attorney General Letitia James is Now Seeking OVER $370 MILLION from President Donald Trump and His Co-Defendants in Their Civil Fraud Trial ⚠️
This is the first time in U.S. history that one party is blatantly attempting to bankrupt the… pic.twitter.com/QlBnqDGBEm
— Matt Wallace (@MattWallace888) January 5, 2024
In her lawsuit against Trump, James alleges that the former president exaggerated his net worth through several different means, such as overstating the value of his real estate properties.
At the beginning of the trial against the former president, James noted that monetary damages would be “at least two hundred and fifty million dollars” and are “to be determined at trial.”
James recently accused Trump of using “myriad deceptive schemes” to “inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation.”
Responding to such an accusation, Trump’s attorneys said, “There is no evidence in the record that the terms or pricing of any of the subject loans would have been different based on the purported misstatements alleged by Plaintiff.”
“Not a single witness from any bank (or anywhere else) testified to this at trial,” the attorneys continued.
The deciding factor in Trump’s civil case will be Judge Arthur Engoron, chosen by James to preside over the former president’s trial. Engoron previously slapped Trump’s attorneys with a gag order in November 2023 and has consistently ruled against the former president in different instances of the case.
In October 2023, Trump issued a scathing rebuke of James, saying, “We have a racist attorney general whose a horror show, who ran on the basis that she was gonna get Trump before she even knew anything about me. She used this to run for governor.”
“She failed in her attempt to run for governor she had virtually no polling. She came back and said, ‘Well now I’ll go back to get Trump again.’ And this is what we have. It’s a scam. It’s a sham.”
The former president has referred to his civil case in New York as a “witch hunt.”
