Donald Trump found liable for fraud in New York civil case

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00:00 Donald Trump has been found guilty of financial fraud.

00:03 A judge in New York ruled that the former president and his adult sons exaggerated his

00:08 wealth by billions of dollars for years.

00:12 That fraud a way of getting banks to give them cheaper loans.

00:15 Here's more from the Washington bureau chief for The Guardian, David Smith.

00:20 The judge here in New York found that Trump and his adult sons exaggerated the value of

00:29 assets, properties, many millions of dollars.

00:34 We're talking office buildings, golf courses, Trump's own Mar-a-Lago estate, penthouse apartment

00:43 in Trump Tower in New York, which the judge singled out.

00:49 He claimed was 30,000 square feet, nearly three times his actual size.

00:55 And that resulted in an overvaluation of as much as $207 million.

01:01 And the idea behind Trump doing this was to defraud banks and insurers and others.

01:08 And really, according to this judgment, his entire business empire, at least in part,

01:14 was based on rampant fraud.

01:18 So it's only punctures the longtime image of him as a successful businessman that we

01:24 saw on the reality TV show The Apprentice and so on.

01:29 It's a great victory for Letitia James, the New York attorney general.

01:33 She's got a trial coming up against Trump next week, pursuing $250 million penalty for

01:41 falsifying business records.

01:42 And because of today's judgment pending an appeal, she no longer has to prove the claim

01:47 that he inflated his assets.

01:49 A judge found that to be the case.

01:52 He was scathing about Trump's lawyers.

01:55 And he said there's a difference here between illusion and reality.

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