Donald Trump / Letitia James
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Trump’s legal team keeps making the same failed arguments in court papers, NY officials say.
NY AG Letitia James asked a Manhattan judge to fine Trump, his sons, and his lawyers $10,000 each.
This would penalize Trump’s team for wasting everyone’s time with failed and “frivolous” arguments, she says.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has had enough of Trump’s same old losing arguments.
In a blistering court filing Tuesday, New York Attorney General Letitia James asked a Manhattan judge to impose $10,000 fines apiece on Donald Trump, his two eldest sons, and their lawyers for recently raising the same, thrice-rejected, “frivolous” legal arguments in fighting her $250 million business-fraud lawsuit.
Over the past year, and most recently last week, lawyers for Trump have repeatedly raised the same arguments in fighting the case, which is scheduled to go to trial October 2.
Among those losing arguments are claims that the case is a politically-motivated witch hunt, and that James has no legal standing or capacity to sue him because Trump’s alleged business frauds did not harm the public.
Last week, James filed a request for a preliminary victory in the lawsuit, asking the judge to resolve part or all of the case pretrial.
In fighting this proposed, so-called preliminary injunction, Trump once again raised some of the same failed arguments, including questioning her standing and capacity to bring the case, James complained in Tuesday’s filing.
Trump last week also repeated another failed argument, claiming that disclaimers in his disputed bank filings warned banks not to rely entirely on Trump’s math, disclaimers the former president said in an April deposition made the filings “worthless.”
“This Court soundly rejected these three arguments” – standing, capacity, and the filings’ so-called “worthless” clause – in a decision back in November, 2022, James complained in a memorandum of law also filed Tuesday.
In a decision last year, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ruled that the “worthless clause” was itself worthless.
The language in the clause “makes abundantly clear that Mr. Trump was fully responsible for the information contained within,” Engoron wrote in last year’s decision.
The judge said then that allowing “blanket disclaimers to insulate liars from liability” would completely undercut banking filings.
James is seeking $220,000 in sanctions, or $10,000 each for the Trump Organization and nine related trusts and LLCs, plus Donald Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., Eric Trump, former CFO Allen Weisselberg, company comptroller Jeffrey McConney, and seven defense lawyers.
Lawyers for Trump, his sons, and his lawyers did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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