Two of Donald Trump’s biggest legal nightmares will collide in Manhattan on Monday as he faces a deadline to pay an eye-watering $454 million fraud fine and a crucial hearing in Stormy Daniels’ hush money trial.
The former president’s bank accounts could be frozen and his beloved properties 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 bail amount.
Meanwhile, the 77-year-old heads to a Manhattan courtroom for a hearing in what will likely be the first of his four criminal cases. Jury selection was scheduled to begin Monday, but the addition of thousands of pieces of evidence will further push the process back toward the general election in November.
The clash of the two lawsuits will lead to another dramatic day in Trump’s political drama and financial saga that has dominated his preparations for his grueling rematch with Joe Biden.
On Friday, he claimed he had $500 million in cash hours before shareholders voted to merge his media company, bringing his paper stock at the company to $3.3 billion.
On Monday, parts of Donald Trump’s real estate empire will be at stake. Jury selection will also begin in Stormy Daniels’ hush money case
Trump has strung together a series of tactical legal victories as a team of lawyers makes executive maneuvers to delay criminal proceedings or get judges to consider motions that could ultimately lead to court dates being pushed back far in the summer or after the November elections.
But Monday could be the day Trump feels the most real pain in the world as he had to be processed and fingerprinted at a Georgia courthouse.
New York District Attorney Letitia James has said that if Trump has not made good on the $454 million court judgment against him from his New York fraud trial by then, she will begin seizing property — leaving Trump’s prized Art Deco skyscraper 40 Wall Street could be located among its sights.
She also appears to be keeping an eye on Trump’s Westchester Golf Club and Seven Springs estate and logging judgments in Westchester County.
The former president gushed online about the prospects of the state taking action against him. He wrote a series of fundraising pitches telling New York to “keep your dirty hands off Trump Tower.”
He then fulminated online about the judge who awarded him a staggering $454 extra award – which will increase by more than $100,000 a day as he appeals.
“Arthur Engoron is a rogue judge who was intimidated by the big, mean and ugly mouth of Leticia James, considered by many to be the WORST Attorney General in the US. She is a low IQ person who campaigned for governor using my name. and became TRUSTED,” 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, which is already moribund 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 at 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 called the idea that he would have to sell his real estate “completely ridiculous.”
Trump railed against AG Letitia James on Friday. “Arthur Engoron is a rogue judge who was intimidated by the big, mean and ugly mouth of Leticia James, considered by many to be the WORST Attorney General in the US. She is a low IQ person who campaigned for governor using my name. and became TRUSTED,” he posted
Trump’s real estate problems played out throughout the week. But a new chapter will take place on Monday, even after Chairman 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 had not yet had a chance to review.
Prosecutors said the documents contained only a “limited amount” of new information.
Even with the delay, Judge Merchan allowed jury selection to begin on the March 25 date set aside for the start of the trial.
In a landmark ruling earlier this week, Judge Merchan ruled that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen, former National Enquirer director David Pecker and former Playboy model Karen McDougal could all testify, as well as former Trump Tower doorman Dina Sajudin.
Everyone could talk about the details of an alleged hush-money scheme at the heart of the case. Cohen, who served a prison sentence after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, testified that he set up a shell company to make $130,000 in payments to Daniels, who says she had an affair with Trump.
Judge Merchan also ruled that Trump cannot rely on an informal “presence of counsel” defense for conversations that took place there with Cohen. It was seen as an attempt to circumvent the more formalized “advice of counsel” defense – which would have required abandoning defenses that normally involve information about attorney-client privilege.
The real estate drama arose when Trump started looking for someone willing to underwrite a bond, his lawyers wrote in a filing.
Trump’s team said they contacted 30 institutions and couldn’t find anyone willing to post bail for him. Trump, who previously posted a $91 million bond in the defamation case against E. Jean Carroll, then posted 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 has been a major point of contention.
James has noted that she can see 40 Wall Street from her own office. “I watch 40 Wall Street every day,” she said.
