Letitia James: New legal step in Trump case ‘relevant’ to election, says lawyer

New York Attorney General Letitia James's new legal move in the civil fraud case against former President Donald Trump in New York is “relevant” to the November election, attorney Glenn Kirschner said Friday.

In February, New York judge Arthur Engoron fined Trump, now the Republican presidential candidate, $464 million after finding him guilty of economic fraud. Trump maintains his innocence and claims the case is politically motivated. His legal team appealed Engoron's ruling.

On Wednesday, James' office asked the New York Court of Appeals to affirm Engoron's ruling. In a brief, they wrote that the judge's decision “is supported by overwhelming evidence that the defendants used a variety of misleading strategies in each statement to massively misrepresent the value of Mr. Trump's wealth.”

In a video posted on YouTube on Friday for his show Justice is importantKirschner, a former U.S. attorney and frequent Trump critic who has appeared as a legal expert on MSNBC, commented on James' latest filing, saying, “It's damn relevant to the presidential campaign. It has a direct impact on Donald Trump's fitness to ever hold office again. We have to add this legal development to all the other legal developments and circumstances that Donald Trump is facing.”

Kirschner then addressed Trump's other legal troubles, such as the 34 felonies he was convicted of by a New York jury in late May, including a hush-money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels, and his pending federal election interference trial in Washington, DC, and his state election interference trial in Georgia. Trump has pleaded not guilty to the pending cases against him and maintains his innocence in the hush-money case he is currently trying to overturn. He claims all of the cases against him are politically motivated.

“Donald Trump is de facto disqualified from ever holding office again, let alone the highest office in the land, that of President of the United States,” Kirschner added.

Steven Cheung, Trump’s communications director, said Newsweek by email on Saturday morning: “Loser Glenn Kirschner is a complete moron and a notorious peddler of wild conspiracy theories and dubious legal analysis and is generally shunned by the legal community.”

Newsweek contacted Kirschner via text message and James' office via email on Saturday morning for comment.

The appeals court is scheduled to hear arguments on Trump's appeal in his civil fraud case on September 26, about six weeks before Election Day. Early voting will begin in some states by then. According to NBC News, a decision in the case could come before the end of the presidential campaign, as the appeals court typically issues its rulings about a month after arguments.

In the civil fraud case against Trump, Engoron found the former president, his adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, and the Trump Organization, Trump's real estate company, liable for a conspiracy to illegally inflate the value of the former president's net worth and assets in order to obtain more favorable business deals.

Trump was fined nearly half a billion dollars and banned from doing business in New York for three years. Donald Jr. and Eric were each fined more than four million dollars and banned from doing business in New York for two years.