The highly-anticipated verdict of this civil fraud trial — complete with both outrageous and awkward moments — has been a long time coming. As you may recall, Justice Arthur Engoron ruled on September 26, 2023, that Trump was indeed guilty of committing fraud by inflating the value of his assets along with his net worth, in an effort to obtain favorable loans and insurance terms.
Then, on January 5, New York Attorney General Letitia James upped the ante when she requested that Trump be penalized a staggering $370 million, an amount she alleged he gained fraudulently. This new number was far more than the original $250 million that she first sought in the fall of 2022.
Trump, however, wasn’t willing to take the new figure development lying down. He sounded off in a post on his social media platform Truth Social, writing, “Now the courrput [sic] A.G. [attorney general] wants $370,000,000 as businesses flee New York. They should pay me. This is prosecutorial misconduct – a DOJ [Department of Justice] witch hunt!”
