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After James won the judgment, she didn’t seek to enforce it during a legal time-out for Trump to ask the appeals court for a reprieve from paying up. That period ended Monday, though James could have decided to allow Trump more time.
James told ABC News last month that if Trump doesn’t have the money to pay, she would seek to seize his assets. She didn’t detail the process or specify what holdings she meant, and her office has declined more recently to discuss its plans. Meanwhile, the office has filed notice of the judgment, a technical step toward potentially moving to collect.
Trump maintained on social media on Friday that he has almost $500 million in case but on Monday said that he’d like to be able to use some on his presidential run. He asserted that James and Engoron, who’s also a Democrat, “don’t want me taking cash out to use it for the campaign.”
If the penalty is ultimately upheld, the attorney general could go after Trump’s bank and investment accounts. There’s also the possibility of going through a legal process to seize properties such as his Trump Tower penthouse, aircraft, Wall Street office building or golf courses, and then seeking to sell them. But that could be complicated in Trump’s case.
“Finding buyers for assets of this magnitude is something that doesn’t happen overnight,” noted Stewart Sterk, a real estate law professor at Cardozo School of Law.
Under New York law, filing an appeal generally doesn’t hold off enforcement of a judgment. But there’s an automatic pause if the person or entity posts a bond covering what’s owed. Many defendants can get such a bond, but “judgments of this size are rare,” said Joshua Naftalis, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice. “What makes this one unusual is someone who is subject to an enormous amount of money and has to come up with it himself,” Naftalis said.
The ex-president’s lawyers have said underwriters wanted 120% of the judgment and wouldn’t accept real estate as collateral. That would mean tying up over $557 million in cash, stocks and other liquid assets, and Trump’s company needs some left over to run the business, his attorneys have said.
They asked an appeals court to freeze collection without his posting a bond. The attorney general’s office objected saying he hadn’t explored every option for covering the amount.
The appeals court “chose a middle ground” by still requiring Trump to put up money but lowering the amount, Naftalis said.
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