(New York) Citing the work of reconciliation in the United States of historic presidents like Lincoln, a lawyer for Donald Trump calls for “for the greater good of the country” the annulment of a civil conviction last winter at 454 million dollars for financial fraud.
Posted at 8:18 p.m.
In a letter dated Tuesday, John Sauer, who will be number 4 in the Department of Justice from January 20, demanded that the head of Justice of the State of New York, Attorney General Letitia James, it “completely abandons the case against President Donald J. Trump, his family, his businesses and vacates the judgment and all damages.”
Mr. Trump was sentenced in mid-February by a Manhattan civil court to $454 million in fines with his sons Eric and Donald Jr., for financial fraud within their real estate empire Trump Organization.
They were found guilty of inflating their assets, such as Trump Tower and the 40 Wall Street building, by several billion dollars in the 2010s in order to be granted better bank loans.
After the conviction, Mme James, an elected magistrate from the Democratic Party, had threatened to launch legal seizures of real estate to recover the value of the fine. But the one who was still only the 45e president campaigning for his re-election had posted a guarantee of 175 million dollars in court in April, a bond covered by an insurer, and had appealed.
“Following his historic election victory, President Trump called for an end to partisan conflict and for rival factions to join forces for the greater good of the country,” writes Me Sauer, soon to be representative of the public department, “general counsel” to the Supreme Court of the United States.
This summer, the lawyer succeeded before this high court with a conservative majority in ensuring that it broadens the scope of presidential immunity, and therefore that of Mr. Trump between his two terms. If the civil conviction is not overturned, it will raise “serious and dubious constitutional questions”, threatens John Sauer.
The jurist even invokes the history of the United States in his legal argument, relying on the unifying works of Presidents George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy: “On October 3, 1863, Abraham Lincoln made Thanksgiving the holiday nationality that we celebrate [jeudi] urging Americans to put aside their bitter divisions and bless freedom with one voice and one heart.”
On Tuesday, Donald Trump saw his federal criminal charges for election interference in 2020 dropped.
