Is the judge licensed to evaluate real estate? Is the judge a broker?
Three words:
Read.
The.
Opinion.
The judge derived that valuation from the evidence submitted by the NY attorney general, specifically, the Palm Beach County Assessor's valuation for property tax purposes. See page 26 of the opinion; to wit: "From 2011-2021, the Palm Beach County Assessor appraised the market value of Mar-a-Lago at between $18 million and $27.6 million. NYSCEF Doc. No. 905."
In the absence of other credible valuation reports, and in the absence of any reason to believe that the property assessor is valuing on some other basis other than a good-faith fair market value basis, the valuations provided by a local property tax assessor are generally admissible as evidence of value.
Furthermore, the evidence that Trump put into the case regarding how he and his team had valued Mar-a-Lago were conclusory and without an evidentiary foundation. Accordingly, not worth the paper written on.
Once again, Trump has done this to himself, repeatedly, and he has nobody but himself to blame.