Former US President Donald Trump commenced his New York civil trial in Manhattan earlier this month. This trial stemmed from a lawsuit brought to attention by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
This lawsuit brought attention to Trump, a few of his companies including his two adult sons and their alleged fraudulent practices including overvaluation of their assets on legal documents. According to James, this would have given them an advantage when it came to deals on loans and insurance policies.
Before the commencement of the no jury trial, Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump along with his co-defendant’s were responsible for misconduct on annual financial statements listing their assets.
Attorney general James claims Trump over exaggerated his wealth by approximately $3.6 billion. In addition to this Trump exaggerated the size of the Trump Tower penthouse by almost three times and his Florida property, Mar-a-Lago ten times the actual value. This could have potentially saved Trump and his companies around $100 million in loan interest rates.
In response to this, Trump and his lawyer, Alina Habba, claim that his legal assets filed were mearley an estimation of his properties and as disclaimed, the bank would have to perform their own exact analysis of the property. Moreover, Habba accused the judge of undervaluing assets including Mar-a-Lago, though Trump denies any wrongdoing.
Former president Trump denies any wrongdoing.
The repercussions of this crime would include fines of up to $250 million and a ban on any New York business affairs, this would include the loss of Trump Tower.
“If he only supposedly benefited $1 million why should he have to suffer such drastic consequences?” NHS sophomore Kayla Sinapi said.
Others feel as if the consequences should be more harsh.
“He is worth billions of dollars and if he defrauded banks, in order to get more favorable loans and better interest rates I mean you know the banks were defrauded so he should have to pay a price for that and if it’s $250 million, it’s $250 million,” NHS history teacher, Larry Saladin said.
Witnesses being called to testify include former president Trump, two of his oldest sons, a few Trump Organization executives and Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen.
During the trial, a gag order was placed on former president Trump to prevent him from speaking out against prosecutors, witnesses or court employees, publicly. This gag order will work to prevent interference in the proceedings of his trial.
The Judge felt a need for this order due to Trump’s statements made against Ms. James and other vital members to his trial. Trump has publically called James a “radical lunatic” as well as “biased and corrupt."
Former president Trump violated his gag order two weeks into the trial. After it was imposed, he was ordered to take down a post on a social networking platform called Truth Social. On the platform, Trump had posted remarks about the clerk on his trail and Senate Majority leader, Chuck Schumer. After it was brought to the court's attention, Trump took them down on Truth Social but had failed to take them off of his campaign website. In response to this, Engoron fined Trump a sum of $5,000.
Trump is currently the frontrunner for the Republican Party in the 2024 presidential election.
“What we have here is an attempt to hurt me in an election,” Former president Trump said adding, “I don’t think the people of this country are going to stand for it.”
Before the trial began, Trump had attempted to reschedule until after the election so as to not interfere in its proceedings.
“No [the trial should not be delayed], There will be more problems if he is found guilty if he becomes president,” NHS sophomore Bryce Maddox said.
This trial is in addition to his current federal trial under the allegations of attempting to overturn the 2020 presidential election.
Trump typically does not and has not attended his past trials.
“I wanted to watch this witch hunt myself,” Trump replied.
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