New York Attorney General Letitia James is in the hot seat again – this time after urging a judge on Friday to force former President Donald Trump to shell out $370 million for alleged shady real estate practices, in addition to permanently barring him from the New York real estate industry.
"Ms. James has, in my mind, always been a bit of a fame-hungry human being that has put her politics in front of the interest of New York State," Alina Habba, an attorney representing the former president, told Fox News' Maria Bartiromo on "Sunday Morning Futures."
"After a trial where we had experts say that statements were undervalued, where we had experts who were on the Nobel Executive Committee reference team tell the judge that he [Trump] did nothing wrong, that his statements actually gave too much information and there were no victims. And Deutsche Bank said, ‘Hey, we loved working with Trump. He actually paid his loans off early in many instances, if not on time. We all made money, and he over-invested in the properties, the assets related to the mortgages, and he was a great client.’"
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Habba said James then decided to "up the ante" on how much Trump should be penalized after initially seeking $250 million on allegations he had inflated his net worth to land in better favor with banks and insurers.
According to USA Today, that "figure grew as additional buildings and valuations were revealed during the 44-day trial to determine damages."
"She wants to completely wipe clean the bank account of the Trump Organization. She wants to hurt individuals who have done nothing wrong. She wants to disgorge them of their severance pay," Habba continued.
"Imagine the lengths she is going to to personally hurt Trump because she ran a campaign on going after Trump, and she has to keep her political promise. It is so sick and sad, honestly, for New York."
Bartiromo, delving deeper into the topic, remarked that Trump built his empire in New York and that James is urging for him to be banned from the industry in the Empire State altogether.
"It's pretty extraordinary, right?" she asked Habba. "What is President Trump expecting from all of this? He's still campaigning, and he was obviously campaigning in Iowa just over the weekend. What is he expecting in terms of all of these legal issues and how he's going to make it to the finish line in November?"
Habba said Trump is remaining "positive" through his legal troubles and said he would like to think the judge will be capable of making a decision that is not politically partisan.
"Ms. James, for instance, on Thursday, will be closing and giving summations. The judge there put a gag order on me, put a gag order on the president, all the lawyers. We hope that he will see through this. Sometimes, when they push so hard, they make it obvious that their agenda is really not about law and justice. It's about politics, and I really do hope these judges will see through that."
