The monitor overseeing the Trump Organization during the civil fraud suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James has uncovered a mysterious loan that could unravel Trump's legal position, wrote law expert Lisa Rubin for MSNBC's MaddowBlog on Wednesday.
James is alleging in the suit that Trump and his two adult sons have systematically misstated the value of their properties to manipulate tax balances and loan interest rates. She is seeking $370 million in fines and the dissolution of the Trump Organization; presiding Judge Arthur Engoron has already partially ruled for her on the merits in summary judgment. His ruling on damages is expected to come any day now.
Barbara Jones, a former federal judge, is currently acting as the monitor in this case.
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"In her most recent report, as many have noted, she not only identified a variety of irregularities but also flagged something potentially more significant: the absence of any loan agreement memorializing what she understood to be a $48 million loan to Trump from Chicago Unit Acquisition, an entity affiliated with his Chicago building," wrote Rubin. "That loan, which reportedly was made in 2012, seems to have been repeatedly included among Trump’s liabilities in his U.S. Office of Government Ethics-required financial disclosures in 2018, 2019, 2020 and just days before leaving office in 2021. Yet in her letter, Jones noted that in her recent discussions with the Trump Organization, the company 'indicated that it has determined that this loan never existed.'"
"What’s more, Jones’ letter implies that Trump’s present-day disclosures to the Office of Government Ethics are similarly flawed," she continued. "Indeed, a review of Trump’s 2023 personal financial disclosure report, which he filed as a presidential candidate in April of last year, reflects the loan as an existing liability, not an extinguished one. If the loan never existed, that means that Trump — while under a court-appointed monitorship — was lying to the federal government and misleading the monitor."
This could be the ballgame, wrote Rubin, because the huge relief being sought by New York is predicated on a risk that Trump will offend again without a drastic level of punishment. "That Jones has uncovered what could be even further evidence of fraud, as recently as last year, could be the cherry on top of the sundae that Engoron serves Trump."
