Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost Slams Trump’s New York Fraud Judgment as “Weaponizing Justice”

In saying Donald Trump is being treated unfairly, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost seems to be advocating treatment for the former president that he won’t advocate for his own constituents.

Yost took to X in to express his outrage in the wake of a civil-fraud judgment against Trump totaling $350 million — nearly $450 million if you count prejudgment interest.

“This damages verdict is disconnected from reality — utterly punitive and disproportionate to the losses, which are zero,” Ohio’s top law-enforcement officer said on Feb. 17. “If the defendant’s name was Hunter Biden or Nancy Pelosi, it would be equally absurd. Stop weaponizing Justice!”

However, Yost’s office wouldn’t answer when asked if the attorney general thinks it’s OK for Ohioans to engage in the conduct for which Trump was held to be liable: filing wildly 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 phony financial documents to get lower interest rates from lenders and better treatment from insurers.

This damages verdict is disconnected from reality—utterly punitive and disproportionate to the losses, which are zero.

If the defendant’s name was Hunter Biden or Nancy Pelosi, it would be equally absurd. Stop weaponizing Justice! https://t.co/crIq7e9jRG

— Attorney General Dave Yost (@DaveYostOH) February 17, 2024

Something that’s important to remember about lenders and insurers: Both are in the business of managing risk. The more collateral you can put up, the less risk they’re taking because if the deal goes south, the more certainly they can foreclose on the collateralized property and recoup their money.

It follows that the lower the risk, the lower the interest rate, or the price you pay to borrow. Judge Engoron found that Trump told huge lies about what his properties were worth to grossly exaggerate his collateral and fraudulently get massive savings on the interest he paid.

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

The judge noted that Trump deeded away the right to use Mar-a-Lago as anything other than a social club but continued to value it as if it could be used as a single-family residence. That allowed Trump to value a property, which should have been valued at only $405 million, at $739 million instead, according to an expert witness.

“He was aware that the Triplex apartment in which he, a real-estate mogul and self-identified expert, resided for decades was not 30,000 square feet, but actually 10,996 square feet; … he was aware that he had permission to build only 500 residences in Aberdeen, notwithstanding that he represented that he had permission for 2,500 (allowing a 400% exaggeration in its value) and he was aware that 40 Wall St. was operating at a deficit despite proclaiming that it was running a net operating income of $64 million.”

All told, the expert told the court, the lies Trump and his company told lenders about those projects saved them $168 million in interest. 

Meanwhile, fraudulent financials allowed Trump to buy the Old Post Office building in Washington, D.C. and sell it at a $127 million profit. Trump realized an additional $60 million windfall from the purchase and sale — based on false financials — of a golf resort at Ferry Point, New York, to Bally’s, the court found.

Yost said the verdict was “disconnected from reality,” but the ill-gotten gains found by the court total $355 million.

To Yost, because Trump’s company repaid those loans, it was no harm, no foul. But one of the questions his office didn’t respond to asked whether the attorney general believes it’s OK for Ohioans to make fake claims on their loan applications so long as they repay the money.

Judge Engoron addressed this argument in his judgment. He said he was ordering Trump to repay the money as a “disgorgement” to the state.

The doctrine forces fraudsters to disgorge profits and it “focuses on gain to the wrongdoer as opposed to loss to the victim,” Engoron wrote. “Thus, disgorgement aims to deter wrongdoing by preventing the wrongdoer from retaining ill-gotten gains from fraudulent conduct.”

Indeed, Ohio law employs the doctrine of disgorgement in at least some instances as well.

Perhaps Yost hadn’t read Judge Engoron’s ruling when he slammed it in his social media post because the judge clearly anticipated it.

“Timely and total repayment of loans does not extinguish the harm that false statements inflict on the marketplace,” he said. “Indeed, the common excuse that everybody does it is all the more reason to strive for honesty and transparency and to be vigilant in enforcing the rules. Here, despite the false financial statements, it is undisputed that defendants have made all required payments on time; the next group of lenders to receive bogus statements might not be so lucky. New York means business in combating business fraud.”

An Ohio ethics watchdog said that the state attorney general’s attempt to diminish Trump’s fraud in New York is especially concerning in a state as awash in corruption as Ohio is. 

Earlier this month, Yost himself filed state charges related to an epic scandal in which Akron-based FirstEnergy paid $61 million in bribes to get a $1.3 billion ratepayer bailout. Former House Speaker Larry Householder, R-Glenford, was already serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison when the Yost indictment described a decade-long pattern of corruption that involved several members of the administration of Gov. Mike DeWine, whom Yost is reportedly hoping to succeed in 2027.

Yost’s criticism of Trump’s New York punishment “is problematic because the attorney general is in the midst of a (prosecution) that is about fraud,” said Catherine Turcer, executive director of Common Cause Ohio. “FirstEnergy engaged in fraudulent behavior. The attorney general played a role in making sure there were state charges about the fraudulent behavior. And so (Yost) understands that there are times that the state takes action and there are times when the federal government takes action. I suspect he would be very surprised if the attorney general of New York were to criticize his behavior in trying to hold (one of the men charged) and FirstEnergy accountable.”

In his ruling against Trump, Judge Engoron described how throughout the proceedings, Trump has paid scant attention to the court’s orders — including by flouting the authority of a special monitor. The judge also noted Trump and his sons’ refusal to ever acknowledge they might have done anything wrong — much less say they’re sorry.

The only exception: Trump the real-estate expert had to admit he knew the difference between a 30,000 square-foot apartment and the 11,000 square-foot one he lived in for decades.

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

Yost’s office didn’t provide any evidence that Judge Engoron was “weaponizing justice.” And the attorney general’s criticism seems to ignore that a number of other judges have presided in high-profile cases that found the former president had acted fraudulently. 

There was the case that ended in 2018 with Trump having to refund $25 million to erstwhile students of Trump University. In that case, Trump had already made racist attacks against the judge, Gonzalo Curiel.

Then there was the Trump Foundation. It had to pay out $2 million and shut down in 2019 after revelations that the supposed charity was being used to pay Trump’s legal bills and even finance a portrait of him.

Yost is believed to be gearing up for a gubernatorial run in 2026 in which he is likely to face Lt. Gov. Jon Husted in the GOP Primary. With the new state charges in the massive utility scandal, Husted’s involvement in the bailout is receiving fresh scrutiny.

Turcer of Common Cause said that in slamming the New York fraud judgment against Trump, Yost appeared to be “throwing red meat” to the Republican base. But by politicizing justice matters, Yost undermines his own credibility, she said.

Referring to the new charges against FirstEnergy, Turcer said, “Not accepting fraud in Ohio 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.”