Trump, GOP Debate, and more lies of the week

Your weekly roundup of viral lies misinforming the public

Lie of the week: Donald Trump has falsely claimed the case against him in New York was dismissed.

The lie:  “Donald Trump says that the Judge has conceded that the statute of limitations are in effect on transactions that have closed prior to 2014, which he says makes up 80%, are now out of the case.”

Donald Trump is being sued by the New York Attorney General for fraud related to his New York businesses. This is not the same case as the 34 criminal indictments against Trump in New York City, which has been set for March 2024. 

New York is seeking $250 million in damages.

Trump appeared in court for the first time regarding the ongoing case against him for fraud in New York earlier this week. 

Trump suffered a major loss in late September when the presiding judge issued a summary judgment against him, finding that Trump “persistently committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets,” and then stripped Trump of control over some of his signature New York properties.

Twenty-one unique charges of fraud are listed in the AG’s filing against Trump. The judge’s summary judgment concerned 15 of those charges The remaining six charges are now being heard in trial. Trump has already lost 71% of the case.

For 80% of the remaining charges in the case against Trump in New York to be dismissed, at least five of those six charges would have to be dismissed. Alternatively, you could measure by dollar amount, so $200 million of the $250 million New York is seeking.

Neither of those things happened. 

What Trump falsely claimed was happening was that the judge agreed that any fraud stemming from accounts closed prior to 2014 were not actionable under the statute of limitations. The judge made no such agreement, and the bulk of the charges against Trump span from 2011 through 2021. The statute of limitations begins at the last action of the fraud, not the first, and the earlier charges can be used as evidence of a pattern of fraud and deceptive business practices, according to the judge’s statement yesterday.

Trump couldn’t help himself but lie about the first day of proceedings, either.  Some of those false claims include:

That the case was timed to damage his campaign. Just as easily, the argument can (and should) be made that Trump is only running again to keep himself out of jail. By waiting until after he was voted out of office, Trump claims the entire judicial system is victimizing him for running again. However, Trump claimed – and the DOJ agreed – that there was no precedent for indicting a sitting president, which is why he was never indicted for the criminal findings out of the Mueller investigation. 

Trump falsely claimed he was denied a jury trial after the judge issued the summary judgment against him and then later the trial began. Trump had the right to demand a trial by jury – instead he requested a bench trial.

Other disinformation and lies making the rounds on social media this week: