![CNN's senior poliitcal analyst Elie Honig explained three possible legal defenses for former President Donald Trump in his New York civil case. [Screenshot CNN]](https://images.dailycaller.com/image/width=960,height=411,fit=cover,f=auto/https://cdn01.dailycaller.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/Screenshot-2023-10-02-at-9.12.39-AM-e1696252415507.png "CNN's senior poliitcal analyst Elie Honig explained three possible legal defenses for former President Donald Trump in his New York civil case. [Screenshot CNN]")
CNN senior political analyst Elie Honig explained three possible legal defenses former President Donald Trump could use in his New York civil case.
New York Democratic Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump in Sept. 2022 alleging he committed fraud while building his real estate empire. Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Tuesday that Trump and his business exaggerated his net worth and fudged his assets, deceiving banks and insurance companies along the way.
Engoron also ruled that Trump inflated the value of Mar-a-Lago and said the property is only worth $18 million. Trump is slated to appear in court on Monday.
“There are going to be defenses, Trump’s gonna fight this. His team will argue, first of all, when you’re assessing real estate, there is a degree of subjectivity. People can differ. The judge said in his opinion last week, ‘Yes, maybe by 10 or 20 percent, but not by 25 times, for example, like we just saw with Mar-a-Lago,'” Honig said. “Trump’s also gonna argue, ‘Well, we put a waiver in our documents, basically what we said is, all these numbers we’re giving you, banks, they’re worthless.’ They actually call it the worthless clause. The judge also was not overly impressed by that. He said the worthless clause itself is worthless. And Trump’s gonna argue, ‘There’s no victim here, there’s no loss because the banks all got repaid with interest.'” (RELATED: The Left’s Latest Legal Attack On Donald Trump Has One Downright Comical Flaw)
Honig said the last legal argument doesn’t “matter” for the one count Endogan already ruled on but that it could serve as a defense for the other charges.
One Palm Beach real estate broker who spoke anonymously to the New York Post said it is “utterly delusional to think that property is only worth $18 million.”
“If that property were on the market today, I would list it at around $300 million, minimum … at least,” the insider reportedly said. “He also has the separate golf course minutes away.”
Trump told the Daily Caller in an exclusive interview Thursday that Mar-a-Lago is worth “probably 100 times” more than what Engoron estimated it to be.