Letitia James says she will seize Trump’s assets
if he fails to pay $355m fraud fine
New York attorney general says she may seek
enforcement mechanisms in court if ex-president does not have funds to pay
Gloria
Oladipo in New York
@gaoladipo
Wed 21 Feb
2024 11.00 EST
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/feb/21/letitia-james-trump-assets-seizure-buildings
The New
York state attorney general, Letitia James, said that she will seize Donald
Trump’s assets if he does not pay the $355m civil fraud fine stemming from his
financial fraud trial.
“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 said
to ABC News in an interview on Tuesday evening.
James added
that she would not hesitate to seize Trump’s buildings, including his 40 Wall
Street skyscraper in Manhattan.
“We are
prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look
at 40 Wall Street each and every day,” James told ABC.
Last
Friday, a New York judge fined Trump, his two eldest sons, and associates
$354.8m and $100m in pre-judgment interest after ruling that Trump had falsely
reported his net worth to obtain more favorable loan terms. Trump, a former
president and the likely Republican nomination for the 2024 presidential race,
overstated his net worth by as much as $3.6bn a year, the judge, Arthur
Engoron, ruled.
Trump and
his legal team have denied any wrongdoing and decried the verdict as
politically motivated. They have said they will appeal the ruling.
Trump’s
attorney, Alina Habba, attacked the verdict as “manifest injustice” and part of
a “multi-year, politically fueled witch-hunt that was designed to ‘take down
Donald Trump’”.
Trump
claimed on his platform Truth Social that there were no victims in the case.
But James
told ABC that she believes in the strength of her case, noting that “financial
frauds are not victimless crimes”.
“He engaged
in this massive amount of fraud. It wasn’t just a simple mistake, a slight
oversight, the variations are wildly exaggerated, and the extent of the fraud
was staggering,” James said.
The latest
fine comes in addition to a $83.3m judgment against Trump for a defamation suit
brought by the journalist and author E Jean Carroll.
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