New York Judge Arthur Engoron rejected former President Donald Trump’s request Thursday to temporarily delay the enforcement of the court’s $354 million fine.
Following Trump’s request, Engoron sent an email to Trump’s lawyers and lawyers with the New York Attorney General’s Office on Thursday, explaining that he would be signing the state’s proposed judgment to finalize the ruling against the former president.
“You have failed to explain, much less justify, any basis for a stay,” Engoron stated. “I am confident that the Appellate Division will protect your appellate rights.”
Last Friday, Engoron ruled that Trump was banned from conducting business in New York for the next three years and ordered the former president to pay $354 million in fines after New York Attorney General Letitia James accused Trump of inflating his business assets and committing business fraud.
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According to The Daily Wire, Trump’s legal team had requested a temporary 30-day stay in the ruling’s enforcement in order to propose a counter-judgement. In a letter to Engoron, Clifford Robert, a Trump lawyer, told Engoron that preventing Trump from submitting a counterjudgement “would be contrary to fundamental fairness and due process.” Robert also accused James of disregarding normal procedures by rushing through the judgment process.
“The Court’s direction that it sees ‘no need for a motion or conference,’ because the proposed Judgment ‘exactly tracks the’ February 16 Decision, ignores the fact that the proposed Judgment expressly states that a motion has been made, which is simply wrong,” Robert wrote. “The Attorney General has not filed any motion on notice, nor moved to settle the proposed Judgment; her unseemly rush to memorialize a ‘judgment’ violates all accepted practice in New York state court.”
The Daily Wire reported that Trump has indicated his intention to appeal the New York court’s decision regarding the attorney general’s case. Trump has repeatedly claimed that the case was politically motivated by a judge who has donated exclusively to Democratic candidates for over two decades and an attorney general who ran a campaign promising constituents that she would use her position to target Trump.
Following last week’s ruling, James has publicly threatened to push for the seizure of Trump’s New York assets if he is unable to pay the $354 million fine.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James recently told ABC News. “We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers.”
