Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud just took a devastating turn against him
Donald Trump has already lost his New York civil fraud trial by summary judgement before it began. The trial is strictly to determine the size of the financial penalties. That’s going to depend on whether the evidence points to Trump having simply been in over his head, or whether Trump was maliciously trying to defraud people.
The Trump Organization has long cited property appraiser Doug Larson as the basis for its sky high false property values. But Larson just testified that he was shocked to find this out, because he’s never played that role for the Trump Organization.
This means that Donald Trump and his cohorts didn’t merely take wildly but innocently wrong guesses as to the Trump Organization’s property values. They falsely claimed that the numbers came from an expert who wasn’t even involved. That proves that Trump and his people made up the numbers maliciously.
This is the kind of thing that can help send the financial penalties in this trial through the roof. It’s one thing to make up numbers and then claim you were merely in over your head. It’s another thing to falsely cite an expert who wasn’t even involved. This trial is getting more financially devastating for Donald Trump by the day.
