Given New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s behavior so far, one could not have expected anything different from him.
The judge overseeing former President Donald Trump’s civil fraud case has denied a request from Trump’s legal team to delay enforcing the penalties levied against him last week.
Engoron rejected the defense’s bid for a 30-day stay on the $354.8 million fine plus interest, and bans on Trump and two of his children from serving as executives at New York companies. In an email, Engoron wrote that the defense “failed to explain, much less justify, any basis for a stay,” according to ABC News.
Judge Engeron to Trump “legal” team: “No stay for you!” pic.twitter.com/OU7xZV3o4I
— The Shallow State (@OurShallowState) February 22, 2024
The penalties stem from Engoron’s ruling last week that Trump inflated his net worth to receive more favorable loan terms. In addition to the fine, Trump is barred from serving as a director of any New York corporation for five years, while his sons, Eric and Donald Jr., are barred for three years.
Trump’s lawyers argued that delaying enforcement would allow for an “orderly post-judgment process” given the scale of the penalties.
“To deprive Defendants of the opportunity to submit a proposed counter-judgment would be contrary to fundamental fairness and due process,” Trump’s defense attorney, Clifford Robert, wrote to the court on Wednesday.
Later on Wednesday, Engoron called on Robert to submit a written response detailing how the defense’s proposed judgment would differ from the order put forward by the Attorney General’s office.
In his reply filed Wednesday afternoon, Robert contended that the prosecution’s draft judgment departed from standard procedures and contained at least two mistakes.
Is Trump being treated unfairly in the courts?
“The Attorney General has not filed any motion on notice, nor moved to settle the proposed Judgment,” Robert wrote in the filing, asserting that her “unseemly rush to memorialize a ‘judgment’ violates all accepted practice in New York state court.”
Citing the sheer scale of the penalties handed down, Robert requested a 30-day stay of penalties.
With the court-appointed monitor still in place, Robert insisted that briefly delaying penalties would not harm the prosecution, especially given the judgment’s magnitude.
But Engoron was unmoved, stating, “I am confident that the Appellate Division will protect your appellate rights.”
In an email, Engoron wrote that the defense “failed to explain, much less justify, any basis for a stay.”
To add to the pressure on the former president, Attorney General Letitia James has declared that she is prepared to seize Trump’s assets if he fails to comply with the financial penalty.
The judge also rejected the defense’s proposal to list several Trump organization entities as being located in Florida rather than New York. State attorneys had objected, noting the executives work out of Trump Tower in Manhattan.
While Trump plans to appeal the ruling and has continued denying any wrongdoing, interest on the fine alone amounts to around $87,000 per day.
The clock starts ticking when the judgment gets finalized. Trump will then have 30 days to file his appeal. Before reaching that appeals deadline, he needs to put up $455 million in cold hard cash or bonds. That sum covers the initial $355 million penalty plus about $100 million more in interest, according to CNN.
New York has already been dealing with a massive corporate flight problem.
An August report in the New York Post revealed that the state has lost nearly $1 trillion in assets from almost 160 businesses that have fled the Empire State.
Goldman Sachs, for example, is spending $500 million on a new Dallas-area campus.
AllianceBernstein moved its headquarters and 1,000 jobs to Nashville last year, projecting $80 million in annual savings.
Wells Fargo, overseeing $603 billion in assets, is shelling out hundreds of millions to construct an enormous 850,000-square-foot complex in North Texas after receiving almost $30 million in tax breaks in the Lone Star state.
And this March, The Remington gun factory, which has been in New York for over 200 years, will move its operations to Georgia, according to Fox Business.
Another business is fleeing New York after 200 years! Wow! I guess NY FA and FO! Who’s next? pic.twitter.com/HyblkvLCIA
— Kathleen Winchell ❤️🤍💙🇺🇸🇺🇸 (@KathleenWinche3) February 23, 2024
Last week, during an interview on “The Cats Roundtable” on WABC 770, New York Governor Kathy Hochul told New York business owners that there was “nothing to worry about” after the way Trump’s business was treated in New York, according to The Hill.
But with businesses already one foot out the door to more welcoming and safe states, Hochul may be reassuring the wrong people.
It’s New York that needs to be worried.
