No matter what the court decides, Trump has lost. Letitia James won | Opinion

Donald Trump and his children have already lost their case against New York Attorney General Letitia James — regardless of who the court ultimately sides with.

Anytime a government agency with unlimited funds and limited culpability starts a legal proceeding against an individual or private entity, that person and/or company loses. In this case, the cost of defending this suit will be in the tens of millions of dollars just in legal fees and costs, not to mention the reputational effects that will be felt long term. Trump lost before a hearing date was scheduled and before a judge has even been assigned.

This case concerns whether Trump’s company fraudulently overvalued its assets and the accounting principles it used to the tune of $250 million.

The big question though is who was damaged? Why is the attorney general filing this suit without an actual victim? As an attorney who has had experience defending cases like this one, I can tell you why, it's politics!

In fact, James stated that her inquiry originally started based on the Mueller investigation, which spun off the Michael Cohen probe.

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Now, this might sound like a political opinion, but it is not. Anytime any governmental body decides to go after its own citizens, there is a basic unfairness. Win or lose, the Trumps and their companies will take a huge financial hit while the attorney general has nothing to lose and has already gained national attention.

Outside of politics, it is unbelievably rare for a case of this size and complexity to be brought without a clear victim.

So, what is this $250 million fraud claim for? This case is not based on the financial damage done to shareholders or defaulted loans. It is for what the government calls “ill-gotten gains.” In other words, profits that government will have to prove would not have been received without the use of these higher valuations.

A jury will have to make decisions based on extremely complicated accounting and financial principles that will have to be explained to them by many highly paid experts over many weeks. The technical aspects of this case would be unbelievably difficult to determine by someone with the financial understanding and background much less a typical juror.

Even if the jury can understand these huge complex practices after being lectured to by several opposing experts, it will not end there. The attorney general will then have to show that the Trumps and their companies knew or should have known that what they were doing was wrong.

The next step will be for the jury to determine the actual benefits of the inflated valuations, which will require weeks of even more expert testimony. This is the kind of case that is almost impossible to prosecute or defend in that there will be no panel of jurors who have the ability to fully understand the facts, the testimony, and the issues that will be put in front of them.

Another core issue here is the question of who the actual victim is. A party can be held responsible for bad acts without a victim, but juries typically want to rule in favor of a damaged party. They want to give something to the victim and not just penalize the bad guy.

As we watch the case unfold, despite it being a civil lawsuit and not a criminal proceeding, it will definitely feel like a criminal trial. The attorney general’s office will have its attorneys sitting on one side of the room making claims that the Trumps are evil, and the Trumps will be there with their attorneys claiming that they did nothing wrong. Having represented clients in both criminal and civil cases, this one will definitely look more like a criminal one.

So am I defending Trump? No, I am not. I am defending against the idea that anyone, at any time, can have the unlimited weight of a state government dropped upon them.

Earlier in my career, I was working with a client who was poor, and the company he worked for was run into bankruptcy. Florida’s Statewide Prosecutor’s Office came down on him and, in the end, the judge dismissed the case halfway through the trial after the state investigator admitted under oath that he had intentionally hidden evidence at the direction of the prosecutor. The state of Florida spent millions of dollars prosecuting a case clearly for political reasons, and even though my client prevailed in the courtroom, he won the battle and lost the war, and the Statewide Prosecutor’s Office skipped away getting exactly what they wanted, a political victory.

This matter concerning Trump is just like my client's — the outcome will be meaningless because he has already lost.

Jeff Kaufman is an attorney based in Orlando. He is licensed to represent clients in 18 states, including New York and Florida.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: No matter what the court decides, Trump has lost. Letitia James won