New York State Attorney General Letitia James says she’s prepared to go after some of Donald Trump’s real estate holdings, including The Trump Building in lower Manhattan, if the former president cannot pay the nearly half-billion judgment handed down against him last week.


What You Need To Know

  • New York state Attorney General Letitia James says she’s prepared to go after some of Donald Trump’s real estate holdings, including The Trump Building in lower Manhattan, if the former president cannot pay the nearly half-billion judgment handed down against him last week

  • New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million and roughly another $100 million in pre-judgment interest for fraudulently inflating his net worth in order to secure more favorable loans

  • In an interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday evening, James said, “If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.

  • Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said he will appeal the ruling

New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million and roughly another $100 million in pre-judgment interest for fraudulently inflating his net worth in order to secure more favorable loans. 

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said he will appeal the ruling.

The whopping fine came just weeks after another judge ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for making defamatory statements about her after she accused him of raping her in a New York department store dressing room in the 1990s. He also plans to appeal that verdict.

In an interview with ABC News that aired Tuesday evening, James said, “If he does not have funds to pay off the [civil fraud] judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.”

“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and, yes, I look at 40 Wall St. each and every day,” the attorney general added.

40 Wall St. is the address of The Trump Building, a 72-story office tower the former president has owned since 1995.

Trump, whom Forbes estimates has a net worth of $2.6 billion, will have to either pay the fine or secure a bond within 30 days while he appeals. 

A candidate for president again this year, Trump issued a statement calling the ruling “a Complete and Total SHAM.”

“Tish James has been obsessed with ‘Getting Trump’ for years, and used Crooked New York State Judge Engoron to get an illegal, unAmerican judgment against me, my family, and my tremendous business,” the former president said.

Trump also has argued the case lacked any victims because he repaid the loans. James pushed back against that claim in the ABC interview.

“Financial frauds are not victimless crimes,” she said. “He engaged in this massive amount of fraud. It wasn't just a simple mistake, a slight oversight. The variations are wildly exaggerated, and the extent of the fraud was staggering. If average New Yorkers went into a bank and submitted false documents, the government would throw the book at them, and the same should be true for former presidents.”

James also disputed Trump’s claims that the Engoron decision would drive other businesses out of New York, saying: “Last I checked tourism is up. Wall Street is doing just fine.”

Trump has said if he does not win his appeal, “New York State is gone.”

The ruling also barred Trump from serving as an officer or director of any corporation or legal entity in New York for three years and his adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, from doing so for two years. The sons, who have been running The Trump Organization since their father became president, were also fined $4 million each.

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