Lock the orange turd up...

Can James bring Trump down?

By DEANNA GARCIA 

With Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and the ex-lead prosecutor investigating Donald Trump’s business dealings reportedly at odds over whether the former president could be found guilty of felony charges, the state’s attorney general now has the best chance to hold the real estate mogul accountable for alleged misdeeds in court.

But AG Tish James faces an uphill battle to prove Trump committed civil fraud by inflating the worth of his real estate holdings, with appraisals inherently subjective, and successful fraud cases related to valuations few and far between. And the extent to which banks and insurers relied on the alleged misrepresentations is not entirely clear, lawyers who reviewed James’ court papers told POLITICO. Still, several noted James has broad powers in prosecuting fraud, and said the misrepresentations she’s alleged, particularly if they were weighed heavily by banks and insurers who did deals with Trump, could open the former president up to liability in the form of significant monetary damages.

“She has her work cut out for her in terms of proving her case. And I think it’s an incredibly unusual case, in the sense that it has gotten so far in being able to take discovery of a former president,” said Joshua Schiller, a partner at Boies Schiller Flexner, who has fought other cases with the state’s attorney general. One of the core questions in a potential lawsuit, he said, would be whether she can prove lenders and other parties relied on the misrepresentations and were swindled as a result. “The defense is probably working on a set of witnesses that can say it wasn’t material to us whether that information was correct or not.”

Marc Needles, co-chair of the valuation law practice of Fox Rothschild LLP, said that if owners, like Trump, put forth a valuation they know is false or knowingly provide inaccurate information to appraisers, “that’s a whole other story, that’s fraud on the part of the owner.”

James, a Democrat, has yet to bring a lawsuit against the Trumps. Instead her office has been in court to obtain discovery in pre-litigation action.

Trump has called the probe politically-motivated and his representatives have said the claims are baseless.

AG spokesperson Delaney Kempner expressed confidence about the office’s claims in a statement. “Thus far, we have uncovered significant evidence that suggests Donald J. Trump and the Trump Organization falsely and fraudulently valued multiple assets and misrepresented those values to financial institutions for economic benefit. Those facts speak for themselves,” Kempner said.