New York attorney general will argue Trump owes at least $250m in profits made from false financial statements. Plus, climate scientist Michael Mann on our last chance to save the planet
Good morning.
Just a few miles south of Trump Tower in New York City, a judge today will hear allegations of fraud within the Trump Organization in a trial that could lead to Donald Trump and his family business paying hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and that has already threatened to end his business career in the city where it started.
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, has accused Trump of using false and misleading financial statements from 2011 to 2021 to make himself and his businesses wealthier, helping him broker deals and obtain financing. Based on her office’s three-year investigation, James argues that Trump owes at least $250m for committing fraud.
During the three-year investigation, James found that Trump had exaggerated the value of 23 of his properties and assets to the tune of hundreds of millions – or even billions of dollars. Trump used these financial statements to obtain favorable loans and make his net worth appear higher than it actually was.Biden urges Republicans to approve Ukraine aid, saying support cannot waver
Joe Biden has pressed congressional Republicans to back a deal to provide more aid to Ukraine, after provisions for Kyiv were left out of a bill to avoid a US government shutdown.
The president said yesterday he was “sick and tired” of the political brinkmanship, and that US support for Ukraine could not be interrupted “under any circumstances”. Republicans had pledged to provide Ukraine aid through a separate vote, he said.
Without referring directly to the US bill, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said on Sunday nothing would weaken his country’s fight against Russia and no one could “shut down” Ukraine’s stability, endurance, strength and courage, echoing a Ukrainian word often used to refer to power outages caused by Russian attacks.
