New York Attorney General Letita James has confirmed that she is prepared to seize former President Donald Trump’s properties if he is unable to pay the $354 billion fine levied against him in James’ civil fraud case.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James said in an interview with ABC News.
The case and unprecedented fine imposed upon Trump, his children and his business interests has been heavily criticized by legal experts and real estate developers alike. Despite testimony in his favor from financial institutions and the fact that Trump paid back his loans with interest, Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump must pay more than $354 million in fines — with interest — in addition to a three-year ban on doing business in New York.
Shark Tank’s Kevin O’Leary — a real estate developer — has described the conduct Trump is being fined for as standard practice in the industry. “When you get a developer that builds a building and he says it’s worth $400 million and he wants to borrow $200 million from a bank, which happens every day, everywhere on earth, including every American city,” O’Leary said during an appearance on CNN on Monday.
“Let’s penalize all the developers across America. They’ve all done the same thing,” he added. O’Leary has also vowed to withhold his business from the empire state for the foreseeable future, adding that he is far from the only one.
James — who campaigned on prosecuting Trump — told ABC that Trump’s crime was not “victimless,” ignoring the fact that nobody involved in the investigated transactions lost any money. “So financial frauds are not victimless crimes. He engaged in this massive amount of fraud, and it wasn’t just a simple mistake, a slight oversight. The variations were wildly exaggerated, and the extent of the fraud was staggering.”
Trump has argued that the precedent set by the case will drive businesses out of New York, something James said she is not at all worried about. “And last I checked, tourism is up and Wall Street is doing just fine,” the far-left attorney general said.
James concluded the interview by reiterating that she is prepared to seize Trump’s properties and assets if he does not pay the fine.
