(Jacob Bruns, Headline USA) In a widely derided judgment as part of a civil lawfare suit by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat judge claimed Wednesday that former President Donald Trump overvalued his Mar-a-Lago home, among other properties, despite much evidence to the contrary, the New York Post reported.
According to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, Trump’s valuation of his penthouse at Trump Tower was not only exaggerated, but perhaps criminal.
“A discrepancy of this order of magnitude, by a real estate developer sizing up his own living space of decades, can only be considered fraud,” Engoron wrote, noting that Trump and his allies have demonstrated the “propensity to engage in persistent fraud.”
He then revoked the Trump Organization’s New York “business certificates” and assigned a third party the task of “managing the dissolution of the cancelled LLCs.”
In effect, Trump could be stripped of the properties that have been in his family for decades and bear his name.
In a lengthy Truth Social statement following the absurd decision, Trump claimed that this is yet another instance of a partisan legal system.
“The widespread, radical attack against me, my family and my supporters have now devolved to new, un-American depths,” he wrote, noting that Engoron is “deranged”.
According to the former president, he has been stripped of one of the basic rights laid out in the U.S. Constitution.
“We are rapidly becoming a communist country, and my civil rights have been taken away from me,” he said. “This is Democrat political lawfare and a witch hunt at a level never seen before.”
Trump’s attorneys noted that the former president planned to appeal the decision.
“Today’s outrageous decision is completely disconnected from the facts and governing law,” wrote Christopher Kise, a lawyer for Trump, in a statement. “President Trump and his family will seek all available appellate remedies to rectify this miscarriage of justice.”
Some on Twitter defended the former president from the absurd claims being made by the court, noting that, far from overvaluing his properties, Trump may not have valued them highly enough.
Observers noted that nearby listings on much smaller lots had been appraised at nearly $40 million in the same period that Engoron was attempting to claim that Trump’s property was worth only $18 million.
JUST IN – A New York judge ruled that Trump inflated his property values, including Mar-a-Lago, which the judge determined was worth $18-$27 million from 2011 to 2021.
To put this into perspective, neighboring homes on 0.28-0.89 acres are listed for $18-40 million.
Mar-a-Lago,… pic.twitter.com/cpqICdAynf
— KanekoaTheGreat (@KanekoaTheGreat) September 27, 2023
