‘KARMA’: Legal Analyst Reacts To Letitia James’ Latest Legal Defense
George Washington Law professor Jonathan Turley commented on the “breathtaking irony” in New York Attorney General Letitia James latest legal defense while speaking with Fox Business on Thursday.
While speaking with “The Evening Edit,” Turley discussed what he views as a major double standard in James’ denial of wrongdoing and the lack of leniency her office showed towards President Trump in the highly controversial civil fraud case she brought against both him and the Trump organization. James — who secured a $450 million judgement after arguing the president falsified real estate documents — has denied allegations that she submitted fraudulent real estate documents and misrepresented the value of her own properties.
“So the karma is crushing here. But the greatest irony, of course, is to hear her counsel and her spokesperson say ‘This is just wrong because Trump campaigned on moving against his enemies.’ For those of us who have covered this litigation for years, having those words come out of the mouths of James’ staff really is breathtaking,” Turley told host Elizabeth MacDonald.
“She campaigned on a promise to bag Donald Trump on something. She didn’t even bother to name what it was. She literally campaigned on the promise that she would nail him on anything, and then she filled in the violation later.”
Turley went on to note a number of contradictions in James’ legal defense and said her legal team is now arguing that discrepancies in documents, such as questions about her primary residence and an allegation that she misrepresented the number of units in a building, should be dismissed due to unintended error or miscommunication.
“The James defense team is saying that there were contradictions that were corrected, that, for example, that home was the primary residence of the other signatory. But there are contradictions here. It’s an ironic defense because they’re saying, ‘Look, if the bank simply looked into this on their own, they could see that these were more units than just for, that this was not the primary residence of James,’” Turley said.
The legal analyst stressed that James is now relying on the same line of defense she denied to Trump and the Trump Organization during the case brought by her office.
“That’s a type of understanding and leeway that she refused to allow to Donald Trump. She insisted that everything that was signed in her name, and it was signed in his name, I should say, really are bound legally to him,” Turley said. “And so they said you have an obligation to make sure everything filed was absolutely accurate.”