On Friday, a state judge in New York refused applications submitted by former President Donald Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Eric Trump, and Ivanka Trump to dismiss a $250 million lawsuit brought by the state of New York attorney general. The judge found that some of the reasons presented were frivolous.
When Judge Arthur Engoron ordered a monitor to be placed in the Trump Organization a year ago, he had already dismissed a number of the Trumps’ legal arguments as unconvincing.
On Friday, he issued a written order declaring that the Trumps’ continuation of the debates constituted “frivolous” behavior.
The court said, in his opinion, that reading these arguments was like having “Déjà vu all over again,” to quote the famous baseball player Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra.
After giving it some thought, Engoron ultimately decided against taking punitive action against the Trumps’ legal team.
The judge noted in his opinion that “sophisticated defence counsel should have known better” and went on to say that “in its discretion, this Court will not impose sanctions, which the Court considers superfluous, having made its point.”
In addition, the judge did not buy into the Trumps’ contention that some of the allegedly fraudulent behavior occurred after the statute of limitations that the law permits to be applied to such cases.
Ivanka Trump, who left the business in 2017 to go to the White House, maintained that the charges against her were time-barred and that she did not directly alter any business records. Ivanka Trump left the business to go to the White House in 2017. The judge ruled that the allegations of liability against Trump made by the attorney general’s office are “sufficient” to withstand a motion to dismiss them.
In the context of a motion to dismiss, the judge is obligated to accord the plaintiffs’ assertions a greater degree of favorable weight.
In September, New York Attorney General Letitia James initially filed the complaint, in which she stated that the Trumps had used falsified financial statements to obtain favourable rates of insurance, loans, and tax benefits. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of the state of New York. According to Donald Trump and Melania Trump, the inquiry has a political agenda.
In the following months, Donald Trump, who has consistently denied any misconduct, has attempted to obstruct the investigation being conducted by James through a variety of different legal avenues.
His request to prevent James’ office from obtaining records from the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, which he used to hold his companies before he was elected president in 2017, was denied by a federal judge in Florida in December. James’ office is investigating whether or not Trump obstructed justice.
In November, Donald Trump filed the civil complaint, which came only hours after a New York judge rejected an attempt to transfer James’ lawsuit to a different department of the New York state court system.