'Brutal rulings': Trump may be facing the 'largest financial penalty of his life'
Although none of the four criminal prosecutions that Donald Trump is facing have gone to trial yet, the 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner has been dealt some major financial blows in various civil cases.
Jurors ordered Trump to pay $5 million in damages in writer E. Jean Carroll's first of two civil defamation lawsuits against him, but the news was much worse for him in the second one — which found jurors awarding Carroll $83.3 million in damages.
In an article published by Vice on February 2, journalist Greg Walters stresses that civil cases alone could be Trump's financial downfall.
READ MORE: Trump in danger of donor 'backlash' after E. Jean Carroll debacle: legal analyst
"Former President Donald Trump has suffered through plenty of painful courtroom defeats during his lengthy career as one of America's most litigious businessmen," Walters explains. "This time looks different. He's now officially overdue to receive a downright brutal judicial ruling in a case that threatens to dismember his business empire, drain his cash reserves and drive him out of New York State as a businessman forever."
The case that Walters is referring is New York State Attorney Letitia James' civil fraud lawsuit. James alleges that Trump deceived banks by exaggerating the value of the Trump Organization's real estate assets, and Justice Arthur Engoron — who is presiding over the case — agreed with her in a 2023 ruling. What remains to be seen is how much Trump will have to pay.
"That decision could land at any moment, zapping Trump's business like a thunderbolt when it does, in what could easily be the largest financial penalty of Trump's life," Walters reports. "The New York Attorney General's Office is seeking $370 million, along with a lifetime ban on Trump working in New York real estate or serving as an executive or director of a company based in the state. Judge Engoron declared Trump and his business liable for fraudulently overstating Trump's wealth for financial gain in September."
Walters adds, "Now, the same judge bears sole responsibility for setting the penalty…. A $370 million fine would follow Trump's $83 million defamation loss to writer E. Jean Carroll, in a lawsuit over Trump's derisive denials of Carroll's claim that Trump raped her in a New York department store bathroom in the 1990s."
READ MORE: NY appeals court upholds Judge Engoron’s ruling that Trump committed 'widespread fraud'
The "mammoth judgements" Trump is now facing, according to Walters, "dwarf notable courtroom defeats Trump has faced in the past."
"Trump's company was fined only $1.6 million when it was found criminally liable in late 2022 for paying executives in off-the-books perks in what prosecutors branded an illegal scheme to minimize taxes," Walters observes. "When Trump settled three lawsuits brought against his Trump University real estate training program in November 2016, right after he was elected president, he paid out a total of $25 million."
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Vice's full article is available at this link.
