(NewsNation) — Former President Donald Trump responded Friday after a New York State Supreme Court judge found him liable for committing fraud in inflating the value of his personal wealth and business holdings.
“We will be appealing,“ Trump said from the steps of Mar-a-Lago, calling the judge a “very dishonest man.“
“There was no fraud,” he said. “The banks all got their money 100 percent. They love Trump. They testified that Trump is a great, great customer, one of our best customers, they testified beautifully. And the judge knows that. He’s just a corrupt person.”
A New York State Supreme Court judge on Friday ordered the presumptive Republican candidate for president to pay $354.9 million and barred him from conducting business in New York for three years.
Trump called the ruling a “witch hunt,” saying, “This is Russia. This is China. This is the same game. It all comes out of the DOJ. It all comes out of Biden. It’s a witch hunt against his political opponent, the likes of which our country has never seen before.”
Judge Arthur Engoron issued the judgment in a 92-page ruling after 2 1/2 months of testimony from 40 witnesses, including the former president. The ruling came from the bench since juries are not permitted in this type of civil case.
The ruling does not mean Trump’s businesses are dissolved, the judge determined, but independent monitoring and oversight will be required moving forward.
Read the full ruling below:
New York Attorney General Letitia James was seeking $370 million as well as a ban on Trump and other defendants doing business in the state.
In addition to ordering Trump to pay the nearly $355 million, Engoron ordered Trump’s sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., to each pay $4.01 million, the ruling said. Both of the sons were barred from serving as business officers in the state for two years.
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, also responded saying she planned to appeal Friday’s ruling, which she called “egregious” and “relentless persecution.”
“This verdict is a manifest injustice — plain and simple,” Habba said. “It is the culmination of a multiyear, politically fueled witch hunt that was designed to ‘take down Donald Trump’ before Letitia James ever stepped foot into the Attorney General’s Office.
“Countless hours of testimony proved that there was no wrongdoing, no crime, and no victim.”
In a statement issued Friday afternoon, Trump called the ruling a “complete and total sham.”
“I helped New York City during its worst of times, and now, while it is overrun with Violent Biden Migrant Crime, the radicals are doing all they can to kick me out,” a portion of the former president’s statement reads.
James has maintained since the start of the civil trial that Trump has exaggerated his personal wealth by as much as $3.6 billion.
In a statement issued Friday, James said that Trump “engaged in massive fraud to unjustly enrich himself, his family and his organization.”
She added: “He may have authored ‘The Art of the Deal,’ but he perfected the art of the steal. Now, he is finally facing the consequences of his illegal actions. … This is a major win for everyone who believes that we must all play by the same rules. No matter how big, how rich, or how powerful you are, no one is above the law. Not even Donald Trump.”
The state argues Trump and others — including his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — inflated his wealth to receive more favorable interest terms on business loans and also to receive lower insurance premiums. Prosecutors claimed in the lawsuit that Trump has saved at least $168 million in interest alone.
In his ruling, Engoron decided that in order to borrow more and at lower rates, Trump and his business associates submitted “blatantly false” financial data to their accountants. That resulted in fraudulent financial statements, the ruling reads.
The judge wrote that when confronted at trial with the statements, the defendant’s expert witnesses “simply denied reality,” and the defendants refused to accept responsibility or to impose internal controls to prevent future recurrences.
The judge added the defendants’ complete lack of contrition and remorse “borders on pathological.” He also added that this is not the defendants’ “first rodeo.”
“They are accused only of inflating asset values to make more money. The documents prove this over and over again,” the ruling said. “This is a venial sin, not a mortal sin. Defendants did not commit murder or arson. They did not rob a bank at gunpoint.
“Donald Trump is not Bernard Madoff. Yet, defendants are incapable of admitting the error of their ways. Instead, they adopt a ‘See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil’ posture that the evidence belies.”
Trump’s attorney said that the judge’s ruling is “not just about Donald Trump.” Instead, “If this decision stands, it will serve as a signal to every single American that New York is no longer open for business.”
James’ lawsuit claimed that Trump has overvalued many of his personal holdings, including his Trump Tower penthouse, Mar-a-Lago club in Florida as well as golf courses, hotels and a Wall Street office building.
Engoron has already ruled that Trump was fraudulent in his financial statements. The judge ordered that some of the former president’s business holdings be removed from his control or dissolved.
That matter is currently under appeal, which has kept the judge’s order from moving forward.
Trump issued a defiant statement last month, calling the civil trial “fraud” against him. He has also accused President Joe Biden of bearing responsibility for the number of legal obstacles he is facing. On Friday, Trump said he will not let “injustice stand” and that he will fight Biden’s “weaponized persecution at every step.”
Friday’s ruling against Trump comes after a week in which a different New York judge ruled Trump will stand trial on March 25. In that case, prosecutors allege that Trump falsified company records to silence paying people hush money who could have potentially damaging and embarrassing information about Trump’s alleged affair.
Trump claims he is innocent and has deemed the hush money case a witch hunt that will disrupt his campaign for a second stint in the White House.
