CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig said on Thursday that New York Attorney General Letitia James‘ civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump was weak because there were no victims in the case, thus no one was actually defrauded.
Honig made the remarks during a segment on “CNN This Morning” after James’ office alleged that Trump inflated his net worth by as much as $2.2 billion in one year.
Honig said that it was a “big case” because it involved “hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“But it’s also the fifth-most important case Trump is facing right now after the four criminal cases,” he said. “That deposition is really interesting. I mean, Trump argues because of the Trump name, I could have even claimed it was double or triple the value.”
“There’s no question he inflated the assets,” he continued. “But the problem with the case is no one really got defrauded because the banks on the other end — the banks who were making those loans, they decided after doing their own diligence, we’re going to make these loans. And they got repaid with interest so they made profits. That’s why I think, by the way, it wasn’t charged criminally.”
“So technically, is it fraud? Yes,” he concluded. “But you don’t really have a victim, which makes it less appealing as a criminal case.”
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WATCH:
CNN Legal Analyst Elie Honig hits Attorney General Letitia James civil case against Donald Trump, noting that there were no victims in the case. pic.twitter.com/Kcx5aVWT27
— Jason Rantz on KTTH Radio (@jasonrantz) August 31, 2023