Trump s Fraud Trial Starts With Attacks on Attorney General and Judge – The New York Times

The trials of Donald J. Trump began Monday in a New York courtroom, where the former president made an appearance to fight the first of several government actions against him a civil case that imperils his company and threatens his image as a master of the business world.

The case, brought by Letitia James, New York s attorney general, takes aim at Mr. Trump s boasts about his net worth, accusing the former president of crossing from hyperbole into fraud. In some years, the attorney general s office contends, Mr. Trump, his adult sons and their family business inflated his riches by more than $2 billion so that they could secure favorable terms from banks and bragging rights about his overall wealth.

Year after year, loan after loan, defendants misrepresented Mr. Trump s net worth, Kevin Wallace, a lead lawyer for Ms. James, said during opening statements on Monday morning. He noted that while it might be one thing to exaggerate for a television audience or Forbes Magazine s list of the richest people, you cannot do it while conducting business in the state of New York.

Just outside the courtroom, Mr. Trump fired a fusillade of personal attacks on Ms. James and the judge overseeing the case, Arthur F. Engoron, even suggesting that they were criminals.

via www.nytimes.com

I have a hard time seeing what the actual fraud was in this case, if the lenders didn’t rely on Trump’s false representations and he also paid back the loans in full. Maybe there’s some feature of NY law I don’t know and there could well be, but it seems like a political prosecution to me.