Fox News legal analyst Jonathan Turley said Thursday there is something “telling” in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ case against former president Donald Trump, hinting it’s politically motivated.
Trump gave a closing statement Thursday as his civil trial concluded. The case was brought by James in 2022 over allegations Trump inflated the value of his properties to obtain better loan terms. James is seeking $370 million and is seeking to ban him from doing real-estate business in the state for life. James is also seeking to prevent his two eldest sons, Eric and Don Jr., from doing business for five years.
“What do you want us to know about what has happened so far today and what we just heard from the former president a moment ago?”
“There is an absurd element to this case, when you have James demanding almost $400 million in damages. It is true that the banks did not lose money. There was testimony from bankers saying they wanted to get more loans out of Trump because they viewed him as a whale client, someone who was good for making money so they didn’t lose any money,” Turley said. (RELATED: CNN Political Commentator Says Entire NY Case Against Trump Was A ‘Mistake’ And Purely Political)
“The only reason we’re here is because of this rather bizarre New York law that allows James to seek hundreds of millions of dollars when there’s no victim who actually lost money. And, you know, what really is telling here are the numbers, that as James is approaching this like an impulse buy case, the numbers just keep on going up. She says, well how about $370 million? Well, the question is what is that really based on? When you have people who say we didn’t lose money, we wanted more loans, what is that really based on?”
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James campaigned on nailing Trump while running for office, saying on the night of her victory that she “will be shining a bright light into every dark corner of his real estate dealings, and every dealing, demanding truthfulness at every turn.”
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Trump later called the case a “witch hunt.”