Letitia James

Appearing on MSNBC on Friday morning, State Attorney for Palm Beach County Dave Aronberg claimed New York Attorney General Letitia James is hitting Donald Trump where it hurts by exposing him as a financial fraud as she seeks to shut down his Trump Organization with a $250 million lawsuit.

Speaking with "Morning Joe" co-host Mika Brezinski, Aronberg also asserted the former president will likely be convicted in the Mar-a-Lago stolen documents case, despite what he called favorable treatment from Judge Aileen Cannon.

"What, of all the cases, are you watching for something to break sooner rather than later?" the MSNBC host prompted.

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"Mika, this really gets to him," he said of the tax fraud case, "because his identity is combined with his business."

"'The judge says Mar-a-Lago is only worth $18 to $28 million. That guts him right to the core. Of course, it wasn't the judge who came up with that figure, it was the property appraiser here in Palm Beach County."

He went on, "As Shakespeare says, he's hoisted by his own petard. ... He artificially lowered the value for tax purposes of his properties and inflated them for purposes of bank loans and insurance policies."

Changing subjects, he added, "The case that could cause the most damage to Donald Trump is the documents case at Mar-a-Lago, the one that's right here in South Florida."

"Now, I think Donald Trump got lucky because Judge [Aileen] Cannon has been very favorable to him," he elaborated. "It looks like the timing of that case is going to get pushed out past the 2024 election, but Trump has no defense there. They've got him dead to rights, and the only way Trump escapes a conviction there is if he could become president and order his the DOJ to drop everything."

Former President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka has filed a motion to try to get out of testifying at her father's fraud trial in New York, reported ABC News on Friday.

Ivanka Trump was originally a defendant in the suit, but had herself removed from the case by a New York appeals court due to her alleged role in the Trump family's scheme being outside the statute of limitations, because she had left the Trump Organization by 2016.

A New York judge threatened Donald Trump with "serious sanctions" for violating a gag order in his New York fraud lawsuit Friday.

The former president was slapped with the gag order earlier this month after a Truth Social post claiming Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron's clerk was the "girlfriend" of Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and the judge laid into Trump in court Friday after learning the post remained on his campaign website, reported The Messenger.

Former President Donald Trump's attorney in the civil fraud case, Christopher Kise, was forced by New York Judge Arthur Engoron to apologize to a pair of female attorneys he disparaged, reported Law360 on Thursday.

The interaction came during a sidebar after Engoron called lawyers up to discuss a filing from state Attorney General Letitia James about Trump's alleged failure to turn over records.

Former President Donald Trump's son Eric pressured a real estate executive to inflate the value of an as-yet-unbuilt 71-unit residential development at the Trump National Golf Club in Westchester County, New York, ABC News reported on Thursday.

According to the report, David McArdle of the real estate company Cushman & Wakefield told the court at Trump's civil fraud trial that he was hired by the Trump Organization to assess the future value of the duplex units. When he determined they had a value of $40-45 million, Eric Trump demanded he go higher, he said.

Last week, business publication Forbes wrote that longtime Trump CFO Allen Weisselberg had perjured himself during sworn testimony based on years-old emails that Weisselberg had sent the publication in which he tried to convince its reporters that Trump's apartment in Trump Tower was worth more than what they were estimating.

Now The Messenger reports that New York Attorney General Letitia James' office is requesting a "forensic examination of Trump Organization emails" between Weisselberg and Forbes to determine whether he really did lie under oath as Forbes had claimed.

On Thursday morning, MSNBC host Joe Scarborough shared a composite clip of Donald Trump first complaining that he is being forced to attend his Manhattan bank fraud trial only to tell reporters four minutes later that he was on his way out the door to attend a golf event at his Doral golf course.

During a break in the proceeding on Wednesday the former president addressed the press outside the courtroom where he launched a diatribe aimed at New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom he claimed was making him attend the trial, therefore interfering with his ability to campaign for a second term after losing in 2020.

In the clip, Trump complained, "I have to be here instead of Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, lots of other great places -- they want me to be here."

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Four minutes later, Trump was asked: "Will you be here tomorrow?" to which he replied, "Probably not. I have a very big professional golf tournament at Doral, so probably not."

"Perfection!" the MSNBC host laughed as co-host Mika Brezinski exclaimed, "Oh my God!"

With the MSNBC chyron reading, "Trump can't remember own lie," Brezinski added, "The brain can't hold information," as Scarborough mocked the president.

New York attorney general Letitia James slapped down Donald Trump's insulting attacks outside a courthouse where he's on civil trial for fraud, and MSNBC's Joe Scarborough said that's a sign she's holding a good hand.

The former president was admonished by Judge Arthur Engoron to keep quiet following an outburst inside the courtroom, and the "Morning Joe" host was struck by the attorney general's comments afterward.