Lara Trump speaking with supporters at a "Make America Great Again" campaign rally at the Scottsdale Plaza Resort in Paradise Valley, Arizona. (Gage Skidmore/Flickr)
Speaking on Fox News this Wednesday, Donald Trump's daughter-in-law slammed New York Attorney General Letitia James for filing a civil suit against Trump and his businesses alleging that he enriched himself and his family by improperly inflating the value of his assets.
Also named in the suit are three of Trump's adult children, one of whom is Lara Trump's husband, Eric. During the Fox & Friends segment, Lara Trump mentioned James' probe into accusations that her husband funneled money from his cancer charity to his businesses -- alleging that James' inquiry possibly led to the deaths of children.
"My husband started a charity to raise money for kids at St. Jude's Children's Hospital," Trump said. "When he was 22-years-old he raised $30 million for the kids of St. Jude, and Leticia James has such vitriol and hatred for anyone with the last name 'Trump' that she decided to investigate my husband's charity despite the fact that it had one of the lowest expense ratios of any private charity in America. And unfortunately, guess who was hurt by that? It wasn't my husband, it's the kids of St. Jude. Who knows how many kids have died unnecessarily thanks to her investigation and her vitriol and hatred for anyone with the last name 'Trump.'"
Announcing the lawsuit on Wednesday, James said that with the help of his children and others at the Trump organization, the former president gave fraudulent statements of his net worth "to obtain and satisfy loans, get insurance benefits, and pay lower taxes."
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"In short, he lied to gain massive financial benefits for himself," James said.
The investigation is one of many criminal, civil and congressional probes into Trump, who is eyeing another run for the White House in 2024.
The lawsuit filed with the New York State Supreme Court includes allegations that Trump's annual financial statements for at least a decade "grossly inflated" property values across his assets -- from Mar-a-Lago in Florida to Manhattan's Trump Tower -- to a "staggering" degree.
He did so to obtain favorable loans with lower interests and premiums, said James, who is running for re-election.
The suit details how Trump and his associates would represent that he had cash on hand when he didn't, change valuation properties wildly, and that he used "objectively false numbers to calculate property values" including at his famous triplex on Fifth Avenue.
Watch the video below or at this link.
With additional reporting by AFP