Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago Valuation Raises Questions

Donald Trump's alleged fraudulent valuation of his properties, including his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, has been scrutinized by legal experts as New York Attorney General Letitia James moves to have her upcoming civil lawsuit against the former president decided by a judge.

James is suing Trump, two of his children, and the Trump Organization for $250 million over allegations that he inflated or undervalued the value of a number of assets for financial perks between 2011 and 2021.

On August 30, James moved to have a summary judgment to resolve the suit, rather than have it go to trial on October 2 as scheduled, claiming the move is justified as the amount of evidence that Trump filed misleading financial statements about his assets and properties is so overwhelming.

Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in connection to James' investigation, and defended his actions during an April deposition, a transcript of which was recently made public.

Speaking on the MeidasTouch Network podcast, trial attorney and strategist Michael Popok suggested that a judge could rule that Trump "lied" about the valuation of his properties and that the true figure for their worth can easily be confirmed by independent appraisers.

"James said if you go through all of his trophy properties, the ones that he said in his deposition are like Mona Lisa or the [Pierre-Auguste] Renoir paintings hanging on a wall, they're whatever value people will place," Popok said.

"If you go through all these 'trophy properties'—Mar-a-Lago, Bedminster golf course, 40 Wall Street, Trump Tower, the apartment Trump Tower—there is value, there is a number that can be established, there is a size and square footage of it," Popok added.

"And Trump lied about it on his financial statements, he lied about having independent appraisals and we don't have to even go to a jury on it, there's no dispute," he said.

James claims that Trump falsely valued his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida from 2011 to 2021 at $347 million to $739 million based on the premise that it was unrestricted property and could be developed for residential use. James said during this same period, the resort was assessed by Palm Beach County as having a market value based on its restricted use as a social club as ranging between $18 million and $27.6 million.

During his April deposition as part of the inquiry, Trump claimed that he would be able to call on people who could value his Mar-a-Lago property at as much as $1.5 billion. When asked where he got this number from, Trump replied the assessment was "just broker talk."

"We will have people come in, you know, experts at this, to show a price of 1.5, I believe the price will be; 1.5 billion," Trump added.

Trump also valued his triplex apartment at Trump Tower in New York at as much as $327 million, based on claims it was nearly 30,000 square feet in size, when it was actually 10,996 square feet.

James' office previously described the value claim as "absurd" given that at that point only one apartment in New York City had ever sold for even $100 million.

"The fact that Donald Trump spends 400 pages of testimony to James talking about—and I'm not making this up—that he just considers the price to be irrelevant as set by an appraiser because his buildings and his properties are like a Renoir or a piece of fine art, and it's whatever somebody makes up a number to buy it for," Popok added.

"It doesn't relate to the amount of revenue that the property generates, or its expenses, or its rent role, you can't put a number on it like that 'because I own it,'" he said. "That is not going to fly and that's not the law and that shouldn't go before a jury."

Trump's defense of his property valuations was also dismissed by attorney and frequent Trump critic Ron Filipkowski while summarizing the former president's April deposition for Meidas Touch.

"His main defense, which he repeated dozens of times, was what he referred to as a 'worthless clause,'" Filipkowski wrote.

"This clause is basically a disclaimer at the beginning of the statements that any entity who receives them should conduct their own assessment of the value of his properties and he was not responsible if the valuations provided by him were incorrect," he wrote. "Essentially, it is his position that this clause gives him immunity from being held liable for any misrepresentations since that disclaimer renders all the numbers in the statement 'worthless.'

"Another common theme is that Trump always justifies overvaluations of his properties by discussing their potential worth—what he thinks could be done with them to make them more valuable—and he factored in these potential future earnings or projects in his statements of their current value.

"For example—he would say that the current market value of a property was X, but if he broke it up for condos it would be worth much more."

Trump's office has been contacted for comment via email.