Charlie Kirk hosted Donald Trump Jr. on his show Wednesday to dig into the New York ruling against his The Trump Organization, alleging fraud involving Donald Trump's real estate holdings and companies.
"I've never seen anything even like it," Trump said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James filed a $250 million lawsuit against the former president alleging that Trump’s real estate assets had been inflated by $2.2 billion annually. Her claim is that this alleged inflation caused Trump to get better interest rates and loan terms from banks. A judge ruled on Tuesday that he had committed fraud.
James argued that Mar-a-Lago, which is listed at $150 million is really worth $18 million. Don Jr. also reported that the court went to summary judgment, foregoing jury involvement because it “doesn't fulfill the narrative.”
He also revealed that “expert testimony” found that he and his brother “had nothing to do with the statement of financial condition.”
“But hey, our last name is Trump. So we have to be punished,” he added.
Along with the charge of fraud, New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoran ordered the Trump organization’s business licenses to be rescinded and imposed sanctions on both Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr.
Kirk agreed that in West Palm Beach, where Mar-a-Lago is located, one couldn't get a “shed on the island” for $30 million.
“I guess the only benefit is that your father's property tax bill is going down big time,” he quipped.
In regards to the claim of bank fraud, Trump stated “please name a bank…that's been defrauded. Deutsche Bank got paid back in full with interest there.”
He reported to Charlie that the AG and her team “didn't even understand the basics of how a valuation would work,” claiming that they believed one of the golf course properties would only be worth as many rounds of golf that have been played there, completely disregarding its potential for development.
He stated that once they were stumped on an answer, they would move to the next topic of questions.
“God forbid, you own real estate in New York," Trump said, "because they could go in there, they could confiscate all of your real estate, they could shut down your businesses.”
"This is a judge," Kirk said, "that can come in and say that there was an overvaluation of assets” before noting that real estate is a very volatile industry and valuations can “fluctuate by the hour.”
"I mean, in real estate, Charlie, it's also ‘beauty is in the eye of the beholder,'" Trump said.
“There are things in the statement of financial condition where we literally sold the assets for significantly hundreds of millions of dollars more than they were valued on that statement of financial condition.”
“They don't give you a credit for that because something changed in the market it made it go more or maybe go whatever it may be," he continued.
He concluded that Judge Engoran took “literally everything the Attorney General said, and [said] that is the gospel… Case closed.”
Trump’s defense attorneys released a statement: “Without even conducting a trial, the Court substituted its own judgment for that of nationally recognized experts from the NYU Stern School of Business and beyond.”
“More importantly, the Court disregarded the viewpoint of those actually involved in the loan transactions who testified that there was nothing misleading, there was no fraud, and the transactions were all highly profitable.”
President Trump also released a statement, saying "This is Democrat Political Lawfare, and a Witch Hunt at a level never seen before."
Prosecutors and judges, he said, are "getting more and more desperate and dangerous" as he pulls ahead in polls.
"The New York State Attorney General went before a Highly Politicized Democrat Judge, who refused allowing the case to go to the Commercial Division, where it belonged, to simply rule, despite all of the evidence to the contrary, that I committed fraud, which is both ridiculous and untrue."
