A lawyer for New York Attorney General Letitia James also tried to persuade Engoron to hand down a summary judgment on the lawsuit’s most significant claim — that Trump committed fraud by inflating property values and exaggerating his net worth by as much as $3.6 billion on annual financial statements used by him and his company to secure financing.
But Trump’s attorney, Kise, hailed Trump’s “investment genius” during the Friday hearing at a court in Manhattan.He said the property valuations the former president used in financial documents were not meant to be formal appraisals, but Trump’s predictions of what the properties could be worth in the future.
“Defendants have clearly stepped through the looking glass,” said Amer, the lawyer representing the attorney general. He said there was “a complete disconnect” between the real-world market value of Trump’s properties and “the grossly inflated” valuation asserted by former president in his financial paperwork.