Trump says he will spend anything to fund reelection
The prosecutor’s office in the state of New York in the United States said on Friday (8) that former President Donald Trump fraudulently inflated his own assets by much more than previously thought.
- 💵 What is Trump’s declared net worth?
The figures have not been made public, but prosecutors say the former president said he once had a net worth of $6.1 billion.
- 🧾🧮 📊What do prosecutors say?
Prosecutors have commissioned an estimate of Trump’s wealth, and auditors believe the former president claimed each year that his own net worth was $1.9 billion to $3.6 billion more than it was actually worth.
Prosecutors had previously stated that Trump described the assets as being higher than their true value. However, there was a revision: last week they claimed that Trump had inflated his net worth to between $812 million and $2.23 billion.
Trump says he disagrees with these estimates of his own wealth.
Why is it important?
Chief prosecutor Letitia James says there is “heaps of evidence” that Trump inflated his net worth and lied about his assets and assets to get better loan terms and insurance plans.
James’ lawsuit disputes how Trump valued several of his properties, including his MaraLago estate in Florida and his brownstone at the top of Trump Tower in midtown Manhattan.
Prosecutors have asked that Trump be fined $250 million and that he and his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump be barred from running their family business, the New York Citybased Trump Organization.
Trump’s lawyers want the entire case dismissed. They claimed that Trump was “undoubtedly worth billions of dollars” and even generated “significant amounts of money” for the companies that financed and insured the properties in his “phenomenal corporate empire.”
Trump’s attorneys also said that even if it were a criminal offense, it would be statutebarred.
James, the prosecutor, is from the Democratic Party, and Trump is the most likely presidential candidate from the Republican Party.
Judge Arthur Engoron has scheduled a hearing for September 22 to consider both sides’ motions for summary judgment.
Their decisions could limit the scope of the case or, if Trump wins, eliminate the need for a trial that could last until just before Christmas.
The case is separate from four criminal charges Trump faces, including two over an attempt to overturn his 2020 election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump pleaded not guilty to all four criminal cases.
On Wednesday, Engoron rejected Trump’s attempt to delay the trial at least three weeks after his decision on the summary judgment motions.