Judge asked to decide if Trump property valuations were fraud or "genius"
CBSN
Did former President Donald Trump commit fraud when he valued properties far higher than appraisers when applying for loans, or was he applying his "investment genius" to the valuations?
That question was at the center of a Friday hearing, ahead of a scheduled Oct. 2 civil trial stemming from a 2022 lawsuit filed by New York Attorney General Letitia James accusing Trump and others of systematic fraud.
The lawsuit is seeking $250 million from the Trumps and their company, as well as several additional sanctions designed to limit their ability to do business in the state. James has also asked the judge in the case to rule before trial that Trump and his company provided banks with financial statements that purposefully misrepresented his wealth by as much as $3.6 billion.