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Donald Trump mixed up a key detail in his attack on New York Attorney General Letitia James, wrongly blaming her for oil giant Exxon Mobil's exit from the Empire State.
Trump appeared at a Manhattan courthouse on Thursday as his defense team wrapped up closing arguments in the $370 million civil fraud trial involving him, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization. James's lawsuit alleges that the defendants defrauded banks and insurers by grossly inflating the value of Trump's assets.
Speaking outside the courtroom, Trump, who was barred from speaking during the final arguments, said he believed James should be held "criminally liable" for bringing the case against his company, arguing that it was not the first time she pursued a similar prosecution.
"She did this to Exxon and it drove Exxon out of New York," he told reporters. "Exxon paid billions of dollars in taxes. They're now living in Texas. Exxon is very happy in Texas. Other companies, because of what's happening here, are going to be moving out of New York also. This is an out of control attorney general."
Exxon moved its headquarters and 300 employees from Manhattan to Texas in 1989—almost three decades before James was elected attorney general, in 2018. The first African American and first woman to be elected to the position, she was reelected in 2022.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's attorneys via email for comment.
Trump's mix-up appears to stem from the groundbreaking civil lawsuit against Exxon that James took over in 2019 from her predecessor. She notably lost the case after a judge ruled that her office failed to prove that the company defrauded its investors about climate change's impact on the oil giant. The decision was a huge blow to the environmental movement and a significant defeat for James, who was pursuing one of her first major cases in her new position.
Connections between the Exxon case and Trump's case go beyond the fraud charges. During his trial, Trump called an expert witness from the Exxon case last month, using a former prosecution witness' credentials to try to bolster his case.
New York University professor Eli Bartov, an accounting expert, testified as a defense witness on December 7, telling the court that he saw "no evidence whatsoever for any accounting fraud" and that he "absolutely" believed James' case had no merit. Bartov had previously testified for the prosecution as part of the lawsuit accusing Exxon of downplaying the financial risks it faced.
In 1989, former Exxon Chairman Lawrence Rawl said that "the Dallas area offered the best combination of factors from the standpoint of our employees' personal and professional lives and from an overall business standpoint." Exxon recently moved within Texas, relocating from Dallas to Houston last year.
Although Trump was not permitted to speak during the trial's closing arguments, the former president piped up from the defense table on Thursday, telling Judge Arthur Engoron, "What's happened here, sir, is a fraud on me."
Before the judge cut him off, he said, "We have a situation where I'm an innocent man, I've been persecuted by somebody running for office, and I think you have to go outside the bounds."
James is seeking to bar Trump from doing business in New York state, on top of the hundreds of millions in damages. Engoron has indicated he is aiming to submit a written decision on the case by the end of the month.
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About the writer
Katherine Fung is a Newsweek senior reporter based in New York City. She has covered U.S. politics and culture extensively. ... Read more