Trump rebuffed by judge in New York fraud lawsuit, trial date set

NEW YORK, Nov 22 (Reuters) – A New York judge has scheduled an October 2023 trial for former U.S. President Donald Trump, three of his grownup youngsters and the Trump Organization in a lawsuit introduced by New York Attorney General Letitia James accusing them of fraudulently overvaluing the actual property firm’s belongings and Trump’s web value.

Justice Arthur Engoron of the state Supreme Court in Manhattan set the trial date throughout a contentious listening to on Tuesday following motions by the Trumps the evening earlier than to have the civil lawsuit dismissed.

“I dominated on all these points. It appears to me the details are the identical. The regulation is identical. Parties are the identical,” Engoron informed Alina Habba, Trump’s lawyer. “You cannot maintain making the identical argument after you’ve got already misplaced.”

Habba had accused the judge of bias. Trump, a Republican, has accused James, a Democrat, of suing him as a result of she dislikes him and his politics.

In her lawsuit filed on Sept. 21, James accused Trump, his firm, his youngsters Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka and others of inflating Trump’s belongings by billions of {dollars} in a decade of lies to banks and insurers. James known as the fraud “staggering.”

The grievance seeks $250 million in damages. It additionally seeks to cease the Trumps from operating companies in the state and ban Trump and his firm from buying New York actual property for 5 years.

Engoron is predicted to rule on the motions to dismiss by early January. Trump is already appealing Engoron’s order requiring an impartial watchdog to watch his firm.

The trial, scheduled for Oct. 2, 2023, and different authorized points may complicate Trump’s marketing campaign, announced final week, for the presidency in 2024.

The Trump Organization is now on trial in one other Manhattan courtroom on legal tax fraud prices.

In addition, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland final week named a particular counsel to supervise two legal investigations, one associated to the FBI’s seizure of presidency paperwork from Trump’s Florida residence and the opposite inspecting Trump’s position in efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Trump additionally faces a legal investigation in Georgia into whether or not he interfered with the 2020 election outcomes in that state.

He has known as these circumstances and investigations politically motivated, and has labeled Engoron a “puppet judge” for James.

In searching for to dismiss the case filed by James, Trump maintained that the lawyer normal lacked authority to pursue a lawsuit designed to “get” him when neither the general public nor {the marketplace} was harmed.

“Who stands to achieve from this highly-politicized farse [sic], other than the politically-compromised Attorney General of the State of New York?” Trump’s submitting mentioned.

Other defendants additionally urged dismissals.

Lawyers for Trump’s sons known as the lawsuit a “textbook instance of throwing all the pieces on the wall to see what sticks.” Ivanka Trump’s legal professionals mentioned there have been no allegations that she lied to or defrauded anybody.

The Trump Organization’s former longtime Chief Financial Officer Allen Weisselberg and its Controller Jeffrey McConney additionally sought dismissals of claims towards them. Both testified as prosecution witnesses in the Manhattan legal trial in which prosecutors accused the corporate of participating in tax fraud spanning 15 years.

Reporting by Karen Freifeld and Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Will Dunham

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