The 92-page decision
by Judge Arthur Engoron came just weeks after closing arguments in the case. Trump frequently berated the judge and the prosecutor throughout the months-long trial last year.
In 2022, the Democratic New York Attorney General Letitia James
sued Trump, accusing him of falsifying his net worth on financial statements to receive tax and insurance benefits.
Those altered documents, which detailed the value of the various Trump Organization
assets, were then allegedly sent to banks and insurers to secure loans and deals, which the state used as evidence. fraud.
The penalty is around $16 million less than the $370 million the attorney general’s office requested.
It also blocks Trump from participating in New York business for three years.
The judge ordered Trump’s sons, Donald Trump Jr.
and Eric Trump, to pay more than $4 million each and ex-chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg to pay $1 million.
Weisselberg was also barred from doing business in New York for three years. Both he and former Trump organization controller Jeffery McConney were
barred for life from working “in the financial control function” for any New York corporation or business entity.
Trump’s legal team has continued to argue there was no fraud. The most compelling defense came from Deutsche Bank
executives who testified that banks wanted to work with the Trump Organization, conducted their own due diligence and found no fraud.
The speedy ruling by Engoron follows a contentious relationship
between Trump and the judge. From the witness stand in November, Trump lambasted the judge and James, calling them “frauds,” “political hacks” and “Trump haters.”
He also repeated his well-worn argument that legal issues are “political witch hunts“
aimed at keeping him from a second term in the White House.
At one point, Engoron told a Trump lawyer over the former president’s conduct to “control” his client, saying, “This is not a political rally.”
Trump’s legal fees also continue to mount, as his criminal cases heat up and he appeals rulings in his civil cases. A judge recently ordered rump to pay $83.3 million for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll for denying her accusation that he sexually assaulted her decades earlier.
Trump’s fundraising operation spent roughly $50 million on legal consulting in 2023.
More than $18 million
of that went to lawyers Chris Kise, Alina Habba and Clifford Robert, who represented Trump and his business in the fraud case as well as other matters for the former president.
The Hill’s Ella Lee
has more here.
