Letitia James Reveals How Much She Wants to Cut Into Trump's Net Worth

New York Attorney General Letitia James has argued that former President Donald Trump should pay a massive financial penalty and get banned from doing business in New York for life at the conclusion of his business fraud trial.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron already found Trump, his two eldest sons and The Trump Organization liable for fraud in a summary judgment in September. Closing arguments in the trial are expected to begin next week, with several other fraud charges and penalties still to be decided.

James asserted in a court filing on Friday that Trump should be forced to pay "disgorgement," a legal term referring to "a remedy tethered to a wrongdoer's net unlawful profits," in the amount of $370 million, plus interest. James' lawsuit originally sought $250 million from Trump.

The attorney general accuses the ex-president and his co-defendants of working "together for years to inflate Trump's net worth while concealing the fraud from counterparties" by artificially inflating statements of financial condition (SFCs) to obtain benefits like favorable loan terms.

"The SFCs were never an honest effort to estimate Trump's value from the ground up but existed solely as a device to inflate his net worth and obtain the benefits from that inflation," the filing states. "Virtually every action they took in preparing those SFCs was part of a fraudulent scheme."

Friday's filing also urges Engoron to take the "necessary and appropriate" step of issuing a lifetime ban on Trump "participating in the real estate industry in New York State or from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity."

Additionally, a lifetime ban was suggested for ex-Trump Organization Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and former executive Jeffrey McConney, while James urged five-year bans for the former president's sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.

Trump attorney Alina Habba said in a statement sent to Newsweek via email that James' recommendations were "absurd and can be described as nothing less than a form of politically motivated persecution of the leading Republican presidential candidate."

"My clients did nothing wrong, there were no victims and the case presented has proven that his statements were undervalued," Habba added.

A spokesperson for The Trump Organization said in a statement to Newsweek that "not a single witness has ever claimed in any forum that any bank was ever defrauded or suffered any losses or that the value of any assets was ever inflated," while adding that SFCs "were at all times prepared in accordance with applicable accounting standards."

"The Attorney General now seeks extraordinary and unprecedented remedies and unconscionable sums of damages in a continued pursuit of her own political agenda," the spokesperson said. "Every single member of the New York business community, no matter the sector, should be gravely concerned with this gross overreach."

"We have done nothing wrong and will continue to fight to protect our good name, our company and its valued employees," they continued.

A filing by Trump's legal team on Friday argues that James is not "entitled" to disgorgement and "has not demonstrated any real-world impact, any material misstatements, or rebutted the overwhelming evidence to the contrary."

"The record is devoid of any evidence to support a conclusion that any of the SFCs were materially misstated from the lens of the user," it states.

Engoron, whom Trump has repeatedly lashed out at during the trial, will ultimately decide the trial's outcome, due to the lawsuit being filed under a statute that does not automatically allow for a jury trial. Trump has already been handed thousands of dollars in fines by Engoron for multiple violations of a gag order.

While testifying in court on December 6, Trump was admonished by Engoron after complaining: "You and every other Democrat district attorney, A.G., and U.S. attorneys were coming at me from 15 different sides, all Democrats, all haters."

The former president denies any wrongdoing and claims that all of his legal difficulties, including multiple lawsuits and more than 90 felony criminal charges, are part of a politically motivated "witch hunt" and "election interference."

Update 1/5/24, 6:10 p.m. ET: This article has been updated to include a statement from Trump lawyer Alina Habba.