Trump’s ‘No Victims’ Fraud Defense Is an Insult to Taxpayers

“Reality TV Star Found Guilty of Fraudulently Inflating His Assets”

That headline would generally not surprise anyone who watches shows involving “Real Housewives” or other so-called reality TV stars. But today’s ruling by Justice Engoron in New York slams none other than Donald Trump, the former host of the “The Apprentice,” for rampant fraud, the same person who is very soon to be dubbed the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the highest office in the land. And if the recent verdict against Trump in the second defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll of roughly $83 million was shocking, Justice Engoron’s ruling is at least more than four times that, a truly staggering $350 million, with interest. One important element of the opinion that has gotten less coverage than the fact that Trump appears to have defrauded banks: He also defrauded taxpayers.

The practice that led to this ruling is really not that difficult to understand. The former president is found to have inflated his assets when it served him to do so: that is, in order to get favorable treatment from lenders. That resulted in the Trump companies taking advantage of their lenders. Perhaps public sentiment in general and Trump supporters in particular are unlikely to cry any tears for those big banks. The law that Trump was found to have violated does not require that the victims come forward to seek damages, however; the fraud is on the market and the general public, and that’s why the attorney general of New York was able to bring this case. (In full disclosure, I served as a volunteer member of Attorney General Letitia James’ transition team in late 2018/early 2019, and have had no involvement in this or any other case brought by her office since.)

Read more at The Daily Beast.