New York Attorney General Letitia James and former President Donald Trump have been locked in a high-stakes legal battle for years. This timeline details the major developments in their ongoing conflict, from initial investigations to the landmark civil fraud judgment and subsequent appeals.
The Genesis of a Legal Battle: 2018-2022
The protracted legal conflict between New York Attorney General Letitia James and former President Donald Trump began to take shape even before James assumed office. During her 2018 campaign for Attorney General, James publicly vowed to investigate the Trump Organization, a promise that underscored her intention to scrutinize the former president’s business dealings.
Upon taking office in January 2019, James’s office initiated a civil investigation into the Trump Organization’s financial practices. This probe intensified in March 2019 when subpoenas were issued to Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank, seeking records related to several Trump Organization projects. The investigation primarily focused on whether Trump and his company inflated the value of assets to secure favorable loan terms and insurance benefits, while deflating values to reduce tax liabilities.
A significant development occurred in August 2020 when the Attorney General’s office filed a motion to compel testimony from Eric Trump, an executive vice president at the Trump Organization, after he reportedly invoked his Fifth Amendment rights over 500 times during an earlier deposition. A New York judge subsequently ordered him to testify.
By January 2022, the scope of the investigation broadened, leading James’s office to issue subpoenas to Donald Trump himself, along with his children, Donald Jr. and Ivanka, demanding their testimony. Following legal challenges by Trump’s legal team, a judge ordered the former president and his children to comply with the subpoenas in February 2022. Donald Trump eventually sat for a deposition in August 2022, where he reportedly invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 400 times.
The Civil Fraud Lawsuit and Initial Rulings: 2022-2023
On September 21, 2022, Attorney General Letitia James officially filed a sweeping civil fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump, his three eldest children, and the Trump Organization. The lawsuit alleged a decade of fraudulent financial statements, seeking $250 million in damages and a permanent ban on the Trumps from operating businesses in New York.
“Today, we are filing a lawsuit against Donald Trump for engaging in years of financial fraud to enrich himself, his family, and the Trump Organization,” Attorney General James stated at the time of the filing. “There aren’t two sets of laws in this country: one for the powerful and one for everyone else.”
The legal proceedings moved forward, with Judge Arthur Engoron presiding over the case. In a critical pre-trial development in September 2023, Judge Engoron issued a partial summary judgment, ruling that Donald Trump and his co-defendants had committed fraud. This ruling, issued just days before the scheduled start of the trial, determined that Trump had indeed inflated the value of his assets to secure better loan and insurance terms, a key allegation of the lawsuit. The judge also ordered the cancellation of the business certificates for several Trump Organization entities in New York and mandated the appointment of independent monitors to oversee the company’s operations.
The Trial and Landmark Judgment: 2023-2024
The civil fraud trial officially commenced on October 2, 2023, in New York City. Over several weeks, the court heard testimony from numerous witnesses, including Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump. The former president’s appearances on the stand were marked by contentious exchanges and lengthy answers, often clashing with the judge.
Closing arguments were delivered on January 11, 2024. More than a month later, on February 16, 2024, Judge Engoron issued his final judgment. The ruling found Donald Trump liable for engaging in a scheme to defraud and ordered him to pay approximately $355 million in penalties, plus pre-judgment interest, which elevated the total to over $450 million. The judgment also included a three-year ban on Trump serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation. Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were each fined $4 million and banned from managing New York businesses for two years. Ivanka Trump was initially included but later removed from the case on appeal concerning the statute of limitations.
Appeals and Ongoing Developments: 2024
Following the significant judgment, Donald Trump’s legal team initiated an appeal, challenging both the findings of fraud and the monetary penalties. A major hurdle for Trump was the requirement to post a bond covering the full judgment amount to prevent James’s office from seizing his assets during the appeal process. This proved to be a substantial challenge, with
