Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost criticizes Trump’s New York fraud conviction, calls it a ‘weapon of justice’

By saying Donald Trump is being treated unfairly, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost appears to be advocating for the former president to be treated in a way he will not demand of his own constituents.

Yost turned to X to express his outrage over Trump’s civil fraud conviction, which totaled $350 million — or almost $450 million if you include pre-judgment interest.

“This verdict on damages is out of touch with reality — completely punitive and disproportionate to the losses, which are zero,” Ohio’s top law enforcement official said Feb. 17. “If the defendant’s name was Hunter Biden or Nancy Pelosi, it would be just as absurd. Stop using Justice as a weapon!”

But Yost’s office did not respond when asked whether the attorney general believes the Ohioans may have engaged in the conduct for which Trump has been held responsible: filing outright false financial documents — repeatedly and over the course of a decade.

In his ruling, New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron cited numerous instances in which Trump, his sons and the Trump Organization filed false financial documents to obtain lower interest rates from lenders and better treatment from insurers.

It’s crucial to remember for lenders and insurers: both parties are in the business of managing risk. The more collateral you can put up, the less risk they take because if the deal falls through, the more likely they are to be able to seize the secured property and get their money back.

The implication is that the lower the risk, the lower the interest rate or price you pay for the loan. Judge Engoron found that Trump lied about the value of his properties in order to grossly exaggerate his collateral and fraudulently obtain huge savings on the interest he paid.

“Donald Trump was aware of a number of key facts that underpinned various material fraudulent misstatements” in the balance sheets he provided to lenders and insurers, Engoron wrote.

The judge noted that Trump had transferred the right to exploit Mar-a-Lago other than as a social club, but still valued it as if it could be used as a single-family home. That allowed Trump to value the property at $739 million, when it should have been valued at just $405 million, according to the expert.

“He was aware that the Triplex apartment in which he, a real estate tycoon and self-proclaimed expert, had lived for decades was not 30,000 square feet but in fact 10,996 square feet;… he knew that he had planning permission for only 500 homes in Aberdeendespite stating that he had a permit for $2,500 (allowing for a 400% exaggeration in its value) and was aware that 40 Wall Street was operating at a deficit, despite stating that it had net operating income of $64 million.”

As an expert testified in court, Trump and his company’s lies to lenders about these projects allowed them to save $168 million in interest.

Meanwhile, fraudulent finances allowed Trump to buy the Old Post Office building in Washington and sell it for a profit of $127 million. Trump made an additional $60 million from the purchase and sale — based on fraudulent finances — Ferry Point Golf Resort in New Yorkto Bally’s, the court found.

Yost said the verdict was “disturbed by reality,” but the total amount of illicit gains found by the court was $355 million.

To Yost, because Trump’s company repaid those loans, there was no harm, no foul play. But one question his office did not answer was whether the attorney general believes Ohioans can make false statements on loan applications as long as they repay the money.

Judge Engoron addressed that argument in his ruling. He said he was ordering Trump to return the money as a “payment” to the state.

The doctrine forces fraudsters to dispossess their profits and “focuses on the gain to the criminal rather than the loss to the victim,” Engoron wrote. “Accordingly, dispossession is intended to deter wrongdoing by preventing the criminal from keeping the ill-gotten gains from fraudulent conduct.”

In fact, Ohio law applies the doctrine of restitution of unfair advantage. at least in some cases also.

Yost may not have read Judge Engoron’s ruling when he criticized it in his social media post, because the judge clearly anticipated Yost’s argument.

“Paying off loans on time and in full does not undo the damage that false statements do to the market,” he said. “Indeed, the common excuse that everyone does it is all the more reason to strive for honesty and transparency and to be vigilant in enforcing the law. Here, despite the false financial statements, it is undisputed that the defendants made all required payments on time; the next group of lenders who receive false statements may not be so lucky. New York means business in the fight against business fraud.”

Ohio’s ethics watchdog said the state attorney general’s attempt to minimize Trump’s fraud in New York is especially troubling in a state that is so rife with corruption.

Yost earlier this month filed his own state charges in connection with the epic scandal in which Akron-based FirstEnergy paid $61 million in bribes to secure a $1.3 billion taxpayer bailout. Former House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, was He is already serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison when Yost’s indictment described a decade of corruption which was attended by several members of the administration of Gov. Mike DeWine, whom Yost reportedly hopes to replace in 2027.

Yost’s criticism of Trump’s New York sentence “is problematic because the attorney general is in the middle of (a criminal) fraud case,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. “FirstEnergy committed fraud. The attorney general played a role in ensuring that the state fraud charges were brought… I suspect he would be very surprised if the New York attorney general criticized his conduct in trying to hold (one of the accused men) and FirstEnergy accountable.”

In his ruling against Trump, Judge Engoron described how Trump paid little attention to the court’s orders throughout the proceedings — including flouting the special monitor’s authority. The judge also noted that Trump and his sons never acknowledged they might have done anything wrong — much less expressed remorse.

The one exception: Trump, a real estate expert, had to admit that he could see the difference between a 30,000-square-foot apartment and the 10,000-square-foot one he lived in for decades.

“Their complete lack of remorse and remorse borders on the pathological,” Engoron wrote.

Yost’s office has not produced any evidence that Judge Engoron “weaponized justice.” And the attorney general’s criticism seems to ignore the fact that numerous other judges have presided over high-profile cases in which the former president was found to have acted fraudulently.

In 2018, there was a case in which Trump had to return the money $25 million for former Trump University studentsThen Trump has already done it racist attacks against Judge Gonzalo Curiel.

Then there was the Trump Foundation. It was forced to pay out $2 million and close in 2019 after revelations that the supposed charity was being used to pay Trump’s legal bills and even finance his portrait.

Yost is believed to be preparing for a 2026 gubernatorial run, where he is likely to face Lieutenant Governor Jon Husted in the Republican primary. With modern charges in the state’s massive utility scandal, Husted’s involvement in the bailout is coming under increasing scrutiny. fresh check.

Common Cause’s Turcer said that by criticizing New York’s fraud verdict against Trump, Yost seemed to be “throwing red meat” to the Republican base. But by politicizing justice issues, Yost is undermining his own credibility, she said.

Referring to the modern allegations against FirstEnergy, Turcer said, “If you don’t accept fraud in Ohio, that should mean you don’t accept it in New York. If you don’t accept it in Ohio, you shouldn’t be surprised if people in New York don’t want it either.”