Maggie Haberman Says New York Lawsuit Against Trump is ‘Going to Sting’ More Than Investigations Relating to His Presidency

New York Times senior political reporter and CNN analyst Maggie Haberman said that New York Attorney General Letitia James’ civil suit against former President Donald Trump, his three oldest children and the Trump Organization is “going to sting” more than the investigations relating to his presidency.

Appearing on CNN’s Inside Politics With John King, following James’ press conference on Wednesday announcing the lawsuit, Haberman called James’ announcement of the legal action “a sweeping condemnation of Donald Trump’s business practices over a very long period of time.”

Haberman continued:

And remember, he didn’t just start engaging in these practices over the period of time she’s talking about. You know, he’s been in business for a long time. And I think a key point of what she is saying here, John, is there were tangible things that people could see that looked real. And he’s saying that he just massively inflated the value to turn them into something else as he was either dealing with lenders or as he was dealing banks and so forth. This is going to drag out for a while, John. This is a civil suit.

She is making a criminal referral, I believe, and then it’s going to be up to others to decide what they’re going to do with this. There was a question at that press conference of, you know, the IRS had access to the same information, they haven’t done anything. We’ll see where that goes. But the civil penalty here that she’s talking about imposing, the dollars are massive. And what she’s talking about as a potential impact of taking away their business certificates is massive as well.

James is seeking $250 million in penalties.

Later in the segment, Haberman said that Trump won’t take the news well – which turned out to be true. She said that people in Trump’s orbit “recognize” that James’ course of action “goes to Trump’s self-image and Trump’s projected image and this one’s going to sting in ways that investigations related to his presidency … don’t bother him as much.”

Watch above via CNN.