Two of Donald Trump’s biggest legal nightmares will collide in Manhattan on Monday when he faces the deadline to pay the eye-popping $454 million fraud fine and a pivotal hearing in the Stormy Daniels hush-money trial.
The former president’s bank accounts could be frozen and his beloved buildings at risk of being seized by Attorney General Letitia James if he doesn’t get a reprieve from an appeals court or find an insurance company to cover the massive bond.
Meanwhile the 77-year-old will be heading to a Manhattan courtroom for a hearing in what will likely be the first of his four of criminal trials to begin. Jury selection had been set to begin on Monday, but the addition of thousands of pieces of evidence will push the trial back further towards the November general election. The two sides will face off over the Souther District of New York turning over thousands of pages material in the weeks before the trial date.
The collision of the two legal cases will spark another dramatic day in the political drama and financial saga of Trump that has dominated his preparations for his grueling rematch with Joe Biden.
On Friday, he claimed to have $500 million in cash hours before shareholders voted through a merger of his media company that put his paper stock at the venture at $3.3 billion.
Monday will put pieces of Donald Trump’s real estate empire on the line. Jury selection is also set to begin in the Stormy Daniels ‘hush’ money case
Trump has been stringing together a series of tactical judicial wins, as a team of lawyers has executive maneuvers to delay criminal proceedings or get judges to consider motions that could end up pushing back court dates until well into the summer or after the November elections.
But Monday could be the day Trump feels the most real world pain since he had to be processed and fingerprinted in a Georgia courthouse.
New York DA Letitia James has said if Trump hasn’t made good on a $454 million court judgement against him by then from his New York fraud trial, she will begin seizing properties – hitting that Trump’s prized Art Deco skyscraper 40 Wall Street could be in her sights.
She also appears to be eyeing Trump’s Westchester golf club and Seven Springs estate, registering judgments in Westchester County.
The former president was boiling over online at the prospects the state may act against him. He wrote a series of fundraising pitches telling New York to ‘keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower.’
Then he fulminated online about the judge who slapped the stunning $454 more award on him – which increases by more than $100,000 per day as he moves to appeal.
‘Arthur Engoron is a Rogue Judge who was intimidated by the big, nasty, and ugly mouth of Leticia James, considered by many to be the WORST Attorney General in the U.S. She is a Low IQ individual who campaigned for Governor, using my name, and got TROUNCED,’ he posted on his Truth Social site.
‘She and her PUPPET Engoron, who valued Mar-a-Lago at $18,000,000 when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount, have destroyed all business prospects for New York State, that is already dying, or dead. But have no fear —When I become the 47th President, we will MAKE NEW YORK GREAT AGAIN!’
‘Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower,’ Trump said in the fundraising pitch
Letitia James has already filed for a judgment in Westchester County, where Trump’s Seven Springs estate is located
Trump lawyer Alina Habba on Wednesday termed the idea that he should start selling his real estate assets was ‘completely ridiculous.’
Trump raged against AG Letitia James on Friday. ‘Arthur Engoron is a Rogue Judge who was intimidated by the big, nasty, and ugly mouth of Leticia James, considered by many to be the WORST Attorney General in the U.S. She is a Low IQ individual who campaigned for Governor, using my name, and got TROUNCED,’ he posted
Trump is set to be back in New York for a crucial day for his financial empire
Trump’s property woes played out throughout the week. But Monday will feature a new chapter, even after presiding Judge Juan Merchan agreed to delay the start of the trial until at least mid-April.
He agreed to prosecutors’ request for a 30-day delay after prosecutors in the Southern District of New York turned over thousands of pages of material that the defense hadn’t yet been able to review.
Prosecutors said the documents contained only a ‘limited amount’ of new information.
Even with the delay, Judge Merchan is allowing jury selection to begin at the March 25 date that had been reserved for the start of the trial.
In a key ruling earlier this week, Judge Merchan ruled that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, former National Enquirer exec David Pecker, and former Playboy model Karen McDougal all would be allowed to testify, as would former Trump Tower doorman Dina Sajudin.
All could speak to the details of an alleged hush money scheme at the heart of the case. Cohen, who served time after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, testified that he set up a shell company to make $130,000 worth of payments to Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump.
Judge Merchan also ruled Trump can’t rely on an informal ‘presence of counsel’ defense for conversations that took place with Cohen there. It was seen as an effort to get around the more formalized ‘advice of counsel’ defense – which would have required relinquishing defenses that normally go along with attorney-client privilege information.
The real estate drama came as Trump scrambled to find someone willing to underwrite a bond, his lawyers wrote in a filing.
Trump’s team said they approached 30 institutions and couldn’t find anyone willing to post a bond for him. Trump, who previously posted a $91 million bond in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, then posted on Friday that he had $500 million in cash.
Among the properties James could target are: Seven Springs, his Trump National Golf Club in Westchester, and Trump Tower – where Trump’s own 10,000 square foot penthouse apartment was a key matter of dispute.
James has noted she can see 40 Wall Street from her own office. ‘I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day,’ she said.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk