Trump hit where it hurts most
This one is going to sting
Donald Trump took a huge hit today in the two places that hurt him most: his wallet and his image as a business wizard.
The blows were dealt by a state judge in New York, who sentenced Trump to pay fines of almost $355 million for years of fraud by lying about the value of his real estate portfolio. As part of his decision, the judge, Arthur Engoron, also banned Trump from running any New York company — including his own company, the Trump Organization — for three years.
The company has been at the center of Trump's public persona as a wealthy businessman for decades. And in the smallest detail, Judge Engoron has not definitively taken away control of the case. Still, the ruling – if it stands up on appeal – will have significant consequences for the former president's assets.
Whatever financial pain Trump now faces was matched by the damage the decision did to his ego and to his image as a jet-setting billionaire and chief executive, a carefully crafted public face that helped him become the first reality TV star. to become stardom. and then to the White House.
“Their complete lack of remorse and remorse borders on the pathological,” Judge Engoron wrote of Trump and his co-defendants in the case, including his two adult sons, Eric and Don Jr.
The judge also said that the charge of “inflating the value of assets to make money” was “not a mortal sin” and that Trump, his sons and two of his top associates at the company “did not rob a bank at gunpoint.” And yet, Judge Engoron concluded, “defendants are unable to admit their error. Instead, they adopt a 'See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' attitude that is belied by the evidence.”
Trump was already hit with a separate decision last month in which a federal jury in New York ordered him to pay writer E. Jean Carroll more than $83 million for defaming her in 2019 after she accused him of a decades-long rape. And the massive fraud penalties he faces, combined with the restrictions placed on his ability to run businesses in New York and borrow money from financial institutions in the state, could leave him in financial trouble.
It was not immediately clear how quickly Trump and the others, who faced smaller verdicts, will have to come up with the money. The ruling's provision banning Trump from applying for loans in New York in the next three years could make it challenging to obtain the bond he must submit to the court if he appeals the decision.
Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba, described the ruling as a “manifest injustice – plain and simple. It's the culmination of a multi-year, politically fueled witch hunt designed to “take down Donald Trump” before Letitia James ever entered the attorney general's office. Countless hours of testimony have proven that there was no wrongdoing, no crime and no victim.”
Judge Engoron's decision capped a busy week that saw major developments in several criminal cases facing Trump. Some cut corners in his favor, others didn't.
Perhaps the most important step: A state judge in Manhattan set March 25 as the date for Trump's first criminal trial — on charges of falsifying company records about hush money payments to a porn star in the run-up to the 2016 election.
Of all the cases Trump faces as he wages his campaign to retake the White House, the hush-money case is the one that some of his advisers see as the most politically advantageous to him. They believe this could desensitize voters to the other cases Trump is facing, in which he faces more serious charges stemming from his mishandling of classified materials and from his efforts to prevent the peaceful transfer of presidential power after the election of 2020 to disrupt.
The hush money case relies heavily on testimony from Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer and fixer, who has already pleaded guilty to making the payment, as well as lying to Congress and tax-related charges. Cohen was also a key witness in the civil fraud case in Judge Engoron's courtroom. But while Trump's advisers were pleased with their controversial cross-examination of Cohen during the fraud trial, Judge Engoron considered him a “credible” witness.
“This fact finder does not believe that pleading guilty to perjury means never being able to tell the truth,” Judge Engoron wrote. “Michael Cohen told the truth.”
For more: Read the judge's ruling in the civil fraud case.
Where is each criminal case?
Trump is at the center of at least four separate criminal investigations, at both the state and federal level, into matters related to his business and political careers. Here's where each case currently stands.