NEW YORK (Reuters) -Donald Trump should be permanently barred from New York’s real estate industry for “outrageous” fraud, the state’s attorney general said in a court filing on Friday ahead of closing arguments in a civil case against the former U.S. president.
Attorney General Letitia James and lawyers for Trump and the other defendants filed their final briefs ahead of closing arguments scheduled for next Thursday in Manhattan in a case that threatens to strip him of prized real estate assets.
In their filing, Trump’s lawyers accused the attorney general’s office of overstepping its authority by trying to bar Trump from “any and all” business activity, a penalty “far more substantial than the mere loss of money.”
Trump’s lawyers said the state failed during the three-month trial last year to show any “real-world impact” from Trump’s financial statements to banks, which according to the judge presiding over the case overstated his net worth by billions of dollars.
The attorney general’s office in its filing said Trump’s “myriad deceptive schemes” to “inflate asset values and conceal facts were so outrageous that they belie innocent explanation.”
Trump is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democratic President Joe Biden in this year’s U.S. election.
Justice Arthur Engoron will hand down his verdict sometime after the closing arguments. Engoron already found Trump liable for fraudulently overstating his wealth to secure better loan terms.
The trial…
