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New York Attorney General Letitia James is trying to make a "brazen and baseless" comparison between Donald Trump and disgraced broker Bernie Madoff, the former president's lawyer has said in a court filing.
Clifford Robert was responding to James' attempt this week to have Trump banned from the real-estate industry. The Republican, his two eldest sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, as well as the Trump Organization, are co-defendants in the $370 million civil fraud trial brought by James. She accuses the former president of inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to obtain benefits such as better bank loans and reduced tax bills.
Trump denies any wrongdoing. He has repeatedly said that the litigation was politically motivated to derail his 2024 presidential campaign, given he is the frontrunner for the GOP nomination. Newsweek sought email comment from Trump's attorney on Friday.
Madoff's Ponzi scheme saw him swindle people out of millions, including actor Kevin Bacon, director Steven Spielberg and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel.
"During closing argument, the Attorney General also advanced another frivolous comparison with Bernard Madoff," Robert wrote in a court filing on Thursday. He added that, in Madoff's case, Judge Chin said during sentencing that "none of the other financial fraud cases in the district were 'comparable . . . in terms of the scope, duration and enormity of the fraud, and the degree of the betrayal.'"
"The Madoff comparison thus further reveals the lengths to which the Attorney General will go in her brazen and baseless pursuit of a political opponent. Such willingness to abuse power should strike fear in every money center bank and every Wall Street institution," Robert wrote.
He noted that, in contrast with Trump, Madoff "fabricated millions of pages of account statements, containing false trades and account balances that did not exist. The estimates of loss caused by Madoff's financial crimes were as high as $65 billion."
Madoff's many victims included a grieving widow whose late husband invested his life savings with the broker. She was forced to sell her home and was "unable to make good on a promise to pay for her granddaughter's college," Robert wrote.
In Trump's case, "not one witness, not one complaint and not one victim supports the Attorney General's manufactured claims," Robert added.
In James' lawsuit against Trump, Judge Arthur Engoron has already found that Trump fraudulently inflated the value of his assets to secure bank loans. Colleen Faherty, a lawyer in James' office, wrote in a court filing on Tuesday that banning Trump for life from the real-estate industry was a suitable punishment.
In September, Engoron ruled that Trump, his adult sons, their businesses and executives committed fraud in their property valuations. The court will decide on six other accusations, including falsifying business records, insurance fraud and conspiracy claims. The trial ended on January 11, and Engoron said he hoped to issue a ruling by January 31.
Madoff said that he began committing financial fraud in 1992, and the $64 billion Ponzi scheme saw him using the cash from new investors to pay the old ones. It wiped out people's life savings, financially damaged charities and devastated countless victims.
In 2009, Madoff pled guilty to securities fraud and other charges, and he was given a 150-year prison sentence. On April 14, 2021, Madoff died at the age of 82 from natural causes while serving his 150-year prison sentence.
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About the writer
Sean O'Driscoll is a Newsweek Senior Crime and Courts Reporter based in Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. law. ... Read more