Former President Donald Trump has formally requested to extend the one-month period to pay the $355 million civil fraud fine levied against him.
Legal Team of Donald Trump Accuses Letitia James of "Unseemly Rush" to Enforce the Judgment
Citing a letter to Judge Arthur Engoron, who is overseeing the civil fraud case, CNN reported that Donald Trump's legal team on Wednesday expressed their discontent with what they termed an "unseemly rush" to enforce the verdict by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who submitted a proposal for the judge to sign merely days after the ruling was issued.
The former president has a 30-day window from the entry of judgment to post bond and appeal. In his biggest punishment to date, Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million plus interest last week for fraudulently inflating the values of his properties.
The judge also barred Trump from serving as an officer or director of a corporation or other legal entities in New York, including his namesake firm, for three years after he found the former president liable for fraud, conspiracy, and issuing false financial statements and false business records.
Massive Political Cash of Donald Trump Is Depleting
In their letter to the judge, Donald Trump's legal team emphasized the need to delay enforcing the judgment.
"Given that the court-appointed monitor continues to be in place, there is no prejudice to the Attorney General in briefly staying enforcement to allow for an orderly post-Judgment process, particularly given the magnitude of Judgment," they noted.
According to The Hill, James has previously threatened to confiscate some of the former president's assets if he could not come up with the funds. The Associated Press reported that campaign finance reports released this week show two key committees in Trump's political operation raised $13.8 million in January while collectively spending more than they took in.
Most of these expenditures, worth millions, reportedly went to legal fees for Trump's numerous court cases. The legal fees amounted to $3.7 million of the approximately $15 million spent by the Save America PAC and the Make America Great Again (MAGA) PAC.
Records show Save America held almost $2 million in unpaid legal debts, but its fund was eventually bolstered with a cash infusion from MAGA PAC.
Trump's two committees were reportedly left with $36.6 million in cash compared to President Joe Biden's $132 million on hand, of which the $42 million was raised by him and the Democratic National Committee in January.
Trump's last standing Republican rival, former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, outraised the former president's primary campaign committee by almost $3 million last month.
In a statement, Haley's communications director, Nachama Soloveichik, said: "His [Trump] endless drama and legal bills will deplete the Republican Party and bring even more electoral losses."
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