New York Attorney General Letitia James said her office will seize Donald Trump’s assets, including his prized Manhattan skyscrapers, if he can’t scrape together the cash to pay a $350 million-plus fine in his civil fraud verdict.
“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 told ABC News on Tuesday.
“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers — and, yes, I look at 40 Wall St. each and every day,” she added, referring to address of the Trump Building in the Financial District.
After a monthslong trial, Trump was hit with the multimillion-dollar fine for lying about his wealth to build his real estate empire. The former president later claimed, without any evidence, that the decision by Judge Arthur Engoron was an “election interference ploy.”
The massive fine adds to Trump’s mounting financial strain. It came just weeks after a New York City jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million in damages for defaming E. Jean Carroll. His legal bills are taking a bite out of his campaign funds, too, with his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission showing that his campaign and leadership PAC are burning through money, in part to help pay for lawyers and legal consulting in his various civil and criminal cases.
The day after Engoron’s judgment, the former president was at Sneaker Con hawking $399 Trump-branded shoes — a bizarre promotion that fueled speculation about his financial situation.
A big problem for Trump is that much of his fortune is tied up in real estate, which means he doesn’t necessarily have cash lying around to pay such a large fine. He could choose to sell some of those properties, but he doesn’t actually own some of them. Meantime, the Trump-branded luxury properties in New York City, which have long been held up as the crown jewel of his real estate portfolio, are worth less now because his brand has been tarnished.
But if he can’t find a way to pay those fines, they may not be in his portfolio much longer.
