New York Attorney General Letitia James got bad news from the New York appellate court on Monday, March 25, as the court slapped down part of Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling in AG James’ civil fraud case against him, his two adult sons, and former Trump Organization executives. The new ruling extends by ten days the amount of time Trump has to pay the fine, and cuts it in half, from $464 million to $175 million. Under the new ruling, Trump will not have to satisfy the original judgment or have his assets seized if he pays the smaller amount by the new deadline.
As background, Manhattan supreme court judge Arthur Engoron found in February that Trump had to pay $355 million, plus interest, now totaling $464 million. He put a 30-day stay on the order, which thus expired on March 25. Some of the other co-defendants, including Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were ordered to pay smaller amounts.
Now, much of that is slashed. The appellate court found that Trump needs to pay the new, $175 million bond within ten days, and if that is posted the other, smaller amounts need not be paid and the larger, $464 million amount need not be paid either.
Further, under the new order, both former President Donald Trump and his adult sons can run the Trump Organization, something prohibited by Judge Engoron’s order for the next three years, and obtain loans from New York banks, also formerly banned for three years by Judge Engoron. However, there is still a cour-ordered monitor and appointed compliance director for the Trump Organization, as required by Judge Engoron’s ruling.
The ruling is a major win for Trump, as it will be more possible for him to pay the smaller bond amount than the nearly $500 million behemoth of a fine or bond required by Judge Engoron’s original ruling. That means he will have more breathing room to continue with his political campaign and pay the bond while he appeals Judge Engoron’s ruling.
After the appellate ruling, Trump said that, the AP reports, “he would post a bond, securities or cash to cover the $175 million sum in the civil case. However, in a post on Truth Social, Trump quoted Raymond Arroyo as saying, “The appellate ruling is amazing. They should have penalized the judge for cruel and unusual punishment of the defendant. It all goes too too far. None of it will endure appeal.”
Watch Trump comment on paying the reduced amoung here:
Trump has frequently posted about the original holding from Judge Engoron on Truth Social, his social media platform. In one post on Sunday, March 25, for example, he wrote, “Don’t Like the way FoxNews is reporting the Letitia James Election Interference Scam. They don’t want to discuss how ridiculous the Corrupt Judge’s fine of 450 Million Dollars is. It should be $ZERO. The only fraud was the valuation of Mar-a-Lago at $18,000,000 by the Crooked Judge in order to help his already fully debunked narrative. They should pay me damages for what they have done, and ultimately will. THESE ARE NOT THE PEOPLE THAT MADE AMERICA GREAT, THESE ARE THE PEOPLE THAT ARE DESTROYING AMERICA!”
In another furious, invective-filled post on Monday at midnight, Trump wrote, “Why should a Crooked, highly political New York Judge, Arthur Engoron, working in concert and coordination with an even more Corrupt Attorney General, Letitia “Peekaboo” James, his Puppet Master, and the White House, be allowed to take away, and sell off, very successful properties and assets that took me years to zone, build and nurture into some of the best of their kind anywhere in the World – WHEN I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG! These Radical Left Lunatics and Communists ask me to pay a ridiculous and completely unheard of fine of over $450,000,000 only because they saw a similar amount in my bank account. I had intended to use much of that hard earned money on running for President. They don’t want me to do that — ELECTION INTERFERENCE!”
Featured image credit: By Er-nay – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=67718860
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