Now you’re sounding like one of Trump’s lawyers.
You take that back! 
Yeh, that was a low blow.
It seems to me that the judge, who is already fed up with Trump & Company’s nonsense, is going to come down hard on him.
I think it’s quite simple. Trump doesn’t have the money. Not in useful assets and his other assets are mortgaged to the hilt. Rich people don’t become gameshow hosts, gameshow hosts can become rich, but it doesn’t happen the other way around. He blew all his assets on the Caroll case. Only potential asset now is the bombing Trump media company.
This latest attempt was the scam to delay and defraud the payment by someone who is clearly not willing to cover the amount. It will be very interesting what happens next though. Engoron has been on top of him all the time, but the appeals court is perfectly willing to keep paving that road away and giving him more and more time. Only spin now to an appeals court would be “look at how badly he treated poor ol’ me, boohoo, boohoo, only made a mistake on a bond”.
I assume that the ten days is to get another bond. Not to fix the current one. Wouldn’t that be bounced back with a much shorter timescale?
Because he hasn’t managed to get things pushed back or changed already? I’m sure he’ll have that $454 million bond submitted to the court by it’s due date 2 weeks ago.
You shouldn’t but have you met this guy? It would take a lawsuit to get him to return a pen you handed him. But I do think it’s going to take lawsuits if she’s going to seize real property. I just can’t imagine he’s going to hand over the keys without putting up a fight.
Possible, but I think the appeals court will not be pleased that Trump’s lawyers submitted a non-compliant bond.
You’re right, it does take a lawsuit. Which already happened, that’s what this thread is about.
You said it takes a lawsuit for anything to be seized, how about a US Marshall with a gun? Do you think that is enough?
Once all this stuff about bonds and appeals is done, there is nothing he can do. That’s why he’s trying everything he can to put it off. If he could just ignore it and wait for another lawsuit, he’d do that.
But the lawsuit was about fraudulent business practices not how to extract the money from him.
I’m not saying that, in general, if you sue someone, you have to drag them through court again to get your award. I’m saying that if Trump loses a lawsuit, it won’t surprise me if the courts need to intervene.
So we’re on the same page, I’m not talking about him physically not handing it over. I’m talking about her going to seize Property X only to find out he used it as collateral for some different loan that she was never made aware of or Property Y, which lists him as an owner, but then she finds out he doesn’t own the property, he owns a business, which owns the property, which he’s renting.
And we can add, what appears to be, a bogus bond to the whole mess. Just imagine if that went unnoticed.
I don’t claim to know how this is going to play out, I just don’t think she’s getting $454m from Donald Trump without seeing the inside of a courtroom at some point after the appeal is over. I’ll be thrilled if she does, I just don’t see it happening.
I think the appeals court looks only at the original trial. No new facts are entered into evidence during the appeal phase, and the bond (or lack of bond, or lack of compliance of bond) should not, I believe, enter into their decision at all.
Then the state seizes his ownership stake in the business and auctions that off.
Seriously, the possible success of his appeal aside, we are now in the easy part. This is not the state’s first rodeo.
In a normal world, this is how it plays out (at least this is how I have personally seen it play out):
- Lawsuit happens.
- Judgment is found against business owner plaintiff.
- Appeal filed, bond put up by reputable bonding agency. Business and contents put up as collateral.
- Appeal fails.
- Next day, bonding agency arrives with Sherrif, puts chains and locks on business doors and posts a sign saying business has been seized and all contents will be sold at auction to pay bonding agency. If business owner tries to break into his (former) premises, police are called and he is put in jail for breaking and entering. Or theft if he takes anything in there (which no longer belongs to him, legally)
I wonder how seizing properties works when Trump is one of several owners. Take for instance 40 Wall Street. There are multiple owners and the other owners didn’t lose a civil suit so the Sheriff can’t just put a padlock on the door the next day.
Again, I’m not saying he’s physically not going to leave.
Trump has no influence—zero—over the levers of power in NY state. His appeal, which is his right to file, is his last Hail Mary. In all likelihood, the appeal will result in the full judgment standing, or some lesser but still painful amount.
If the current bond mishigas somehow ends up with a proper surety bond, once the appeal is resolved, the state gets whatever that covers. Immediately thereafter titles start getting transferred and eviction notices (where appropriate) are delivered until the full judgment is satisfied.
Once appeals are exhausted, there is no basis for a lawsuit that says, essentially, “I’d really rather not.”
Trump owns the ground lease, which allows him to collect commercial rents. NY can take the ground lease, and inform all of the tenants that from (Day), they will be paying rent directly to the State of New York. Any tenant who does not pay, or pays the rent to Trump after this date can be legally evicted. So they will pay the State of NY. Eventually, NY can sell this ground lease to a business who will pay them handsomely for it (estimates of $80 million), and this new owner can begin collecting from the tenants.
Fair enough, I think we’re just quibbling over semantics. I doubt a lawsuit will be involved but yeah, there will probably be some legal maneuvers required to get it accomplished. Collecting a judgement can be a pain for anyone. IANAL so I don’t know the actual methods required, but it certainly isn’t going to be so easy as walking up and grabbing a deed out of someone’s hand, or changing a database entry on a server. There will probably be things to untangle. Maybe warrants or some other legal orders from a judge needed, again IANAL.
Now, I’d hope the state is better equipped to collect than the average citizen who just won a lawsuit. And I’m also guessing some of the legwork has already been done as a byproduct of the research and discovery done in the course of doing this lawsuit. There is also the advantage of this state-ordered person watching Trump’s organization and keeping an eye on everything it does. So my hope is that with those advantages, they’ll be able to move on collecting in a timely enough fashion to have a real impact.
Westchester Golf Club.
Nobody lives there.
The club has been assessed by local officials at $15 million.
However, Trump has claimed the club is worth as little as $1.4 million, in order to avoid paying local taxes.
So James can seize this club, knock 1.4 million off the amount owed by Trump, and convert the whole place into a lovely local park for everyone to enjoy. Call it “Letitia James Community Park: A place for all to enjoy”
Works for me. I should probably be more general and just go with “I don’t think she’s going to collect all that money without a(nother) fight”. We can speculate on why or why not all day, but Trump always seems to find a way to surprise us.
No question. I think the only thing uncertain is how much of a fight Trump is able to put up at this point. I’d guess it’s not much, especially since he has all those other lawsuits and the election itself to worry about. And I really don’t know what he can do to stop them once the appeals are done. He’s over a barrel.
Hence why he’s making even more claims to victimhood than usual (which is saying a lot in his case).