Economist Paul Krugman tears apart Trump’s defenses in civil fraud case

In addition to facing four criminal indictments, former President Donald Trump has fighting a variety of civil cases — including a non-criminal fraud case initiated by New York State Attorney General Letitia James. And on Tuesday, September 26, Justice Arthur F. Engoron's ruling in that case did not go well for the Trump Organization.

James has been alleging that the Trump Organization seriously exaggerated the value of its real estate assets, and Engoron agreed. Engoron even sanctioned some of Trump's lawyers.

Liberal economist Paul Krugman weighs in on Engoron's verdict in a September 28 column for the New York Times. Krugman describes "three mail defenses" that Trump's legal team used in the case, all of which Engoron rejected.

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"First, they argued that the value of real estate is, to some extent, subjective," Krugman explains. "Indeed, if you own a building, you don't know for sure what it's worth until you try to sell it. But while there's some wiggle room in valuing real estate, it's limited. And Engoron ruled that Trump went far beyond those limits, creating a 'fantasy world' of indefensible valuations."

Krugman goes on to say that "second, Trump's lawyers argued that banks that lent to him got repaid in full, so there was no harm done."

"Of course," the economist/New York Times columnist argues, "that wasn’t true for lenders caught up in Trump's earlier bankruptcies.… Finally, Trump declared on social media that 'my Civil Rights have been taken away from me' and that he borrowed money from 'sophisticated Wall Street banks' that presumably wouldn't have been easily deceived by fraud."

Krugman adds, "If you know anything about Wall Street's attitudes toward Trump, that's a real hoot. For years, only one major Wall Street player, Deutsche Bank, was willing to deal with him at all, leading to much puzzlement about that bank's motives."

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Paul Krugman's full New York Times opinion column is available at this link (subscription required).