Former President Donald Trump has to deal with a whopping $350 million-plus fraud judgment against him and he ranted into the night about a long-debunked lie that was central to his defeat.
Trump has spent months showing up to court to rant at reporters and make a spectacle of himself inside the courtroom during the trial in the fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and presided over by Judge Arthur Engoron.
On Friday, all of those efforts culminated in a bombshell judgment that could cost him over $460 million, including pretrial interest, and handcuffs his ability to do business in the state for three years.
Trump’s reaction has been a sustained stream of apoplexy that continued Monday night with a Truth Social rant that resurrected one of the lies that was key to that jaw-dropping disgorgement — the valuation of his Mar-a-lago resort. Trump wrote:
I have substantially UNDERSTATED my assets in the Financial Statements, not overstated them, as the Corrupt A.G. and “Judge” said. Also, 100% Disclaimer Clause, No Default, No Victims, No Complaints, No “Nothing,” except for success from the banks and everyone else. The Judge FRAUDULENTLY stated that Mar-a-Lago was worth only $18,000,000 in order to make his Fake Case. He, the A.G., and Crooked Joe Biden should be the ones under investigation, not me. Election Interference! MAGA2024
The $18 to $27 million range was derived from a local government appraisal that Trump’s own real estate agent signed off on as recently as 2020 — and was, itself, likely higher than Trump’s broker wanted it to be according to the office that issued the estimate:
Corbiciero’s original petition challenging the valuation does not indicate if he believed the club was valued too high or too low, but nearly all contested valuations are property owners who say the county is overvaluing, according to Becky Haltermon Robinson, a spokesperson for the Palm Beach Appraiser.
Trump’s accusation that President Joe Biden was involved in his various legal cases has also been debunked repeatedly.
