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Today, Judge Arthur Engoron is expected to issue his verdict in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, a ruling that can be appealed but cannot be wiped away simply by virtue of Trump’s election to the presidency. And the consequences could be, well, yuge.
If you followed the trial, you probably remember that the attorney general has asked that the former president and the other defendants — including Trump’s adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric — hand over $370 million in profits that New York Attorney General Letitia James argues were obtained as a result of yearslong fraud. The AG also asked for an injunction preventing Trump from ever serving as an officer or director of a New York company and/or participating in the state’s real estate industry, as well as short-term bans on his adult sons doing the same.
You might ask yourself, “Given the hammer that could fall on the Trump empire, why wouldn’t they just pick up and move their companies — and all of their assets — to Florida, or some other hospitable state?”
That’s a reasonable question. It’s also one for which James, aided by Engoron, has had an answer in place for more than a year, by way of the preliminary injunction she obtained in November 2022.
Under that injunction, through which retired federal Judge Barbara Jones was named the “independent monitor” for the Trump Organization, the three Trumps — and any of their employees or representatives, or any others acting at their direction — are prohibited from taking certain actions without notifying the attorney general, court or independent monitor.
Specifically, they cannot sell, transfer or otherwise dispose of “any non-cash asset listed on the 2021 Statement of Financial Condition of Donald J. Trump, without first providing 14 days written notice to OAG and this Court.” They also have to give the monitor at least 30 days’ notice of “any planned or anticipated restructuring of the Trump Organization, its subsidiaries, and all other affiliates, or of any plans for disposing or refinancing of significant Trump Organization assets, or disposing significant liquidity.”
What does that mean in plain English?
Without telling the judge, the AG or the court-appointed monitor, the Trump Org cannot just play three-card monte and move their buildings or cash around so that they wind up in new business entities outside New York. Instead, at best, they have to give Engoron, James and/or Jones a head start of anywhere from two weeks to a month, in which time Trump and his fellow defendants could be further enjoined.
The bottom line is Trump and company are mostly stuck in place — and on Friday, it could get much, much worse.