Tish James' case against Trump has plenty fodder

This week Trump International Scotland became a central element of a case that looks poised to dominate his post-presidential life.

[...]

[Trump] bought the 2,000 acres (809 hectares) site at Menie in 2006 for $12.6m. Within five short years it was valued by the Trump Organization in its financial statements at $161m, an increase of almost 13 times.

By 2014, the windswept Scottish holding was put at $436m.

[...]

The 2011 estimate for the Scottish property, [AG James'] investigators discovered, included an estimated £75,000 ($120,000 at 2011 exchange rates) for undeveloped land at the site.

Investigating deeper, they found that the figure had been created for an article in Forbes magazine.

[...]

The 2014 value of the Scottish golf club was based in part on the projected sale price of 2,500 houses on the land, even though none of the houses actually existed and the company had planning permission for only half that number. In 1995 the Trump Organization bought a parcel of land in Westchester, New York, known as the Seven Springs Estate, for $7.5m. By 2004 it was valued at $80m and by 2014 at $291m. That 2014 figure [...] included a valuation of $161m for “seven non-existent mansions”.

[...]

James’s investigators were puzzled to find the Trump Tower triplex in Manhattan was listed at $327m in 2015, based on the apartment’s size, allegedly 30,000 sq feet. In fact the property is 11,000 sq feet, which produces a value of $117m. That’s an overstatement in Trump’s official financial statements of more than $200m.

[...]

“We have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit,” James said after the filing was lodged in a New York court.

The new material disclosed by James was so compelling that some close observers of Trumpland are now convinced that he is in serious legal trouble.

[...]

James is pursuing her investigation as a civil case, which means that were Trump to be found liable it could cost him heavily in fines and penalties. More seriously, James is working in coordination with the Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, a similarly tenacious and relentless prosecutor equipped with a large and highly experienced team of investigators.

Bragg is asking exactly the same questions as James: did the Trump Organization commit accounting, bank, tax or insurance fraud? The critical difference is that Bragg’s investigation is criminal, threatening Trump not with fines but prison time.

  Guardian

It'll never happen.

Trump continues to resist giving testimony, as do his two children, on grounds that the investigations are politically motivated witch hunts (both James and Bragg are Democrats). A third child, Eric, who runs the day-to-day work of the Trump Organization, was deposed but pleaded the fifth more than 500 times. The family’s best hope is that the prosecutors will struggle to meet the high bar that is set for criminal cases. That is especially so when it comes to the critical issue of intent, said Robert Mintz, a former federal prosecutor.

“The criminal case is more dangerous since it involves potential incarceration. But it requires criminal intent and that is difficult to prove, particularly in complex financial frauds involving organizations,” Mintz, now a partner at McCarter & English, LLP told the Guardian.

Prosecutors will have to prove that Trump knowingly and willfully violated the law.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.