Prosecutors Have Trump ‘Dead to Rights’ in NY Fraud Case, Former DOJ Official Says
Former President Donald Trump is “in a very, very, bad place,” according to former Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal.
Trump is embroiled in a civil suit in Manhattan, where New York Attorney General Letitia James is suing him for fraud. Judge Arthur Engoron is presiding over the case and has already issued a partial summary judgment in which he deemed Trump committed fraud by overstating the value and physical size of his real estate assets when obtaining loans from banks. Trump denies wrongdoing.
“He lied about the size of an apartment,” Nicolle Wallace said on Friday’s Deadline: White House. “Those are problems and facts that anyone who rents in New York City, as I do, can solve with a tape measure. There are other things about this case that are easy to understand. On the question of fraud, it’s over, lights out, guilty of fraud.”
Wallace asked Katyal to weigh in.
“What do you make of where this trial stands at the end of week one?”
“I think in a very, very bad place for Donald Trump,” Katyal replied. “And I think the whole reason he attended this trial in person is because he wanted the narrative surrounding the trial to be about his presence there rather than the facts of the case. And now that he’s left and the trial’s underway, I think we’re starting to see why he preferred that the media not report on the details of the case. I mean, his defense, Nicolle is one basic thing which is, ‘Well, real estate valuations fluctuate all the time.’ But they don’t fluctuate like this. I mean, you don’t say the apartment in which you live is 33,000 square feet when it’s 10,000 square feet.”
Katyal also noted that Trump would lowball his assets for tax reporting purposes and that the valuations always “cut in his favor.”
“That, I think, is why, you know, he’s basically dead to rights in this case, as far as I can tell,” he added. “I’ve seen no viable defense.”
Trump has repeatedly attacked the judge in the case, but crossed a line when he went after his clerk. That prompted Engoron to impose a partial gag order on the former president.
Watch above via MSNBC.
