Former President Donald Trump on Monday appealed a ruling in his New York civil fraud case that left him owing nearly $355 million plus interest for misstating the value of his assets, leaving the 2024 GOP frontrunner with $440 million in legal fines from three civil cases and faces a litany of legal hurdles in the run-up to the presidential elections.
Trump and his co-defendants in the civil fraud case were ordered to pay $364 million—plus interest—last week, after a judge in New York ruled the former president, his adult children and executives at the Trump Organization fraudulently inflated the value of Trump and the Trump Organizations’ assets, a claim Trump has repeatedly and vehemently denied.
New York Judge Arthur Engoron—a frequent subject of Trump’s attacks on social media—had found defendants liable for fraud by misstating the value of their assets for favorable business deals, a ruling made worse for Trump last week after New York’s Democratic Attorney General Letitia James said she is prepared to seize Trump’s properties if he failed to fork up the $354.9 million fine he owed.
$440 million. That’s how much Trump owes as a result of the verdict in his New York civil fraud case, as well as the $83.3 million he was ordered to pay in a separate defamation case to writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused the former president of raping him in a department store and then defaming her in his denials. Last week, Trump requested a delay in having to pay in that case—which the judge quickly denied on Sunday. Judge Lewis Kaplan ruled that Carroll and her legal team needed to have the opportunity to respond to Trump’s request, giving Carroll until Thursday afternoon to file a response.
Trump is fresh off his fourth consecutive primary victory over former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, his last major challenger for the GOP nomination. Trump took Saturday’s South Carolina primary easily over Haley in her own state, winning nearly 60% of the vote and 47 of the state’s 50 delegates, solidifying his commanding lead. As a result of Haley’s loss, the former United Nations ambassador faces nearly insurmountable odds at winning the GOP nomination. She is also losing support from big-money donors, including a political action committee financed by billionaire Republican donor Charles Koch, which acknowledged in an email obtained by NBC News it no longer believes it can boost Haley’s presidential campaign over Trump.
Trump Ordered To Pay Over $350 Million In Civil Fraud Case As Judge Finds Ex-President Knowingly Committed Fraud (Forbes)
Trump Fraud Verdict: NY AG Letitia James Says She’ll Seize Ex-President’s Buildings If He Can’t Pay Up (Forbes)
