Letitia James Seizing Trump's Property Could Backfire, Pollster Warns

If the New York Attorney General Letitia James seizes Donald Trump's properties, she could help him win the presidential election, a pollster has said.

Speaking to CNN, Frank Luntz said the move would make the Republican go up in the polls and called the opposition to Trump "pathetic."

Trump has until March 25 to come up with a bond amount or James could begin seizing some of his assets and properties after Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump has to pay roughly $454 million, with interest included, in penalties for fraud.

The February ruling stated that Trump and top executives at the Trump Organization inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers. The lawsuit, brought by New York AG James, initially sought $250 million in damages, but she later increased this figure to $370 million, plus interest.

This week, the former president's legal team said paying the full civil fraud penalty would be "a practical impossibility," leading to speculation that James could soon start seizing the president's properties or that he may be forced to sell off some of his real estate empire to pay the fine.

"You're going to create the greatest victimhood of 2024, and you're going to elect Donald Trump," Luntz said.

"If they take his stuff, he's going to say that this is proof that the federal government and the establishment and the swamp in Washington and all the politicians across the country and the attorneys generals and all of this, that this is a conspiracy to deny him the presidency," Luntz continued. "He's going to go up in the polls, just like he went up every single time they indicted him.

"It will prove the things he is saying on the campaign trail and he will go up [in the polls] and it may just elect him president, do not forget that and I say this to the attorney general right now, if you play politics on this — this is what the secretaries of state did in Colorado and what they did in, I believe, is Maine, " Luntz said.

"His numbers went up in both states. I'm almost speechless in how pathetic the opposition to Trump has been and how completely misguided, and this is a perfect example of it."

He added that the reason why Trump is performing well in some polls ahead of the presidential election is because "his critics are stupid and they're running a horrible campaign."

Newsweek contacted a representative for Trump by email to comment on this story.

In response, they directed Newsweek to a Trump Truth Social post which read: "At what point are the actions of a sitting President, using LAWFARE against his opponent for purposes of Election Interference, considered ILLEGAL? I believe, as do various highly respected legal scholars, that Crooked Joe Biden has long since crossed over that very sacred threshold!!!"