A judge rejected a proposal by Donald Trump to temporarily pause the $450 million he must pay for the tax fraud case in New York. Hours after the former president's legal team formally filed the papers, Judge Anil Singh dismissed both the monetary request and the request to stop the suspension from doing business in the Big Apple.
On the positive side for the Republican, Singh temporarily paused two aspects of Judge Arthur Engoron's initial ruling: Trump and his co-defendants cannot hold senior leadership positions in any New York company, and the defendants cannot apply for loans from any New York financial institution.
Regarding the $100 million proposal, Trump's legal team argued that the initial amount is "exorbitant and punitive" and that, together with "an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond."
The former president's lawyers have already appealed the initial sentence, alleging that Judge Arthur Engoron "committed errors" and "abused his discretion and/or acted in excess of his jurisdiction."
If the proposal is accepted, the former president would gain time, but New York prosecutors assure that he does not have enough money to make the full payment, given that a large part of his assets are not liquid.
On the other side of the aisle, the New York attorney general's office pointed out that the Republican does not have the financial assets to pay the entire debt. "There is no merit to defendants' contention that a full bond or deposit is unnecessary because they are willing to post a partial undertaking of less than a quarter of the judgment amount. ... Defendants all but concede that Mr. Trump has insufficient liquid assets to satisfy the judgment," said Letitia James' office.
The aforementioned appeal also paused the interest for non-payment, which amounted to $112,000 per day. If Trump does not have the means to pay, the New York Justice Department would begin to seize the former president's assets.
Where does the case stand now?
With the appeal filed and the $100-million offer on the table, the state attorney general can collect the debt at any time unless the court accepts Trump's proposal. Under local law, James can seize Trump's bank accounts and potentially take control of his New York properties.
Trump's New York tax fraud case
The text presented at the time by the New York attorney general was more than 200 pages long. It alleged that Trump's companies were plagued by fraud and that the Trump Organization had deceived tax officials, lenders and insurers by inflating property values through misleading appraisals.
"These acts of fraud and misrepresentation ... were committed in every annual return by senior management of the Trump Organization. … And they were approved at the highest levels of the Trump Organization, including Mr. Trump himself," the document reads.
Trump's lawyers repeated during the trial that the banks that worked with the Trump Organization at the time did the corresponding investigations and found no evidence of exaggeration of assets.
"Errors or misstatements happen all the time in accounting; if there are no indicia of fraud such as concealment, forgery, or deceit, then there is no basis to determine that these SFCs are fraudulent, and any misstatements are just accidental errors," they noted in a statement.
The sentence against Trump comes after a three-month trial where it was determined that the Republican inflated his net worth by billions to deceive banks and insurers over the course of a decade.
The former president's defense already announced Friday that the former president will appeal the decision. However, experts agree that it will be tough to reverse the ruling. If he is unsuccessful with the appeal, various media sources reported that he could be stripped of control over the Trump Tower in Midtown and his other emblematic properties in New York.
In addition to the former president, Judge Engoron also banned Trump's two oldest sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, from being able to operate businesses in New York for two years. He also ordered them to pay $4 million in fines.
