- President Trump has promised not to remove assets from New York as he appeals a huge civil fraud judgment.
- But officials said he recently tried to change the address of his major assets from New York to Florida.
- The state of New York now argues that this effort proves that simply handing over a “debt note” for money owed by President Trump cannot be trusted.
Officials with the state attorney general's office said in the latest civil fraud filing that Donald Trump tried unsuccessfully to change the address of a major asset from Trump Tower in New York to Florida.
Days after losing an 11-week fraud trial, Trump's lawyers “announced for the first time that the various New York-based defendants are now allegedly based at a golf club in Florida.” State officials complained in a new filing.
Lawyers for the state's attorney general, Letitia James, said the attempted “transfer” proves that President Trump can't be trusted to promise never to “keep” his assets from New York.
In a new filing totaling 132 pages, attorneys for the attorney general cited President Trump's own past assurances that “defendants have assured this court that these assets will not be 'immediately disposed of or “We cannot keep it secret outside our jurisdiction,” he wrote, “but we attempted to relocate it.” .
The complaint asks a Manhattan-based appeals court to order Trump to post an appeals bond for the full amount of the fraud charges he owes New York City.
Based on last month's ruling, Trump currently owes the state more than $456 million in fraud penalties, a figure that increases by $1 million in additional interest every nine days.
Mr. Trump asked the appeals court to allow him to post a bond that would cover only a portion of that huge sum. If he loses on appeal, he promised to pay the full amount later.
State officials now counter that as long as Trump has to put aside the money now in the form of “full bonds,” there is a “substantial risk” that Trump will try to avoid payments in the future. There is.
“Without full bail or bond, the OAG would be highly prejudiced and could be forced to expend significant public resources to enforce the sentence if it is affirmed on appeal.” is high,” Mr. James’ lawyers wrote, using the acronym for the Attorney General’s Office.
The appeals court may not rule on President Trump's request to allow a low-value bond issue for several weeks. Given that the court's deadline for written arguments is March 18, a ruling could come during Trump's felony hush money trial, which is scheduled to begin in Manhattan on March 25 and last for about six weeks. There is.
And if state officials continue to uncover ongoing financial irregularities, the fallout could be even wider.
A judge in President Trump's New York civil court and a lawyer from the attorney general's office said that even though President Trump's four years of state investigations and resulting lawsuits and trials revealed a decade of fraudulent financial statements, He repeatedly stated that he appeared unable to stop the misconduct.
State Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in a February 15 ruling that President Trump could face “restructuring and possible dissolution” of his estate if court-imposed oversight continues to reveal ongoing wrongdoing. He warned that there was a risk of additional penalties, including:
“Corrected” address
It wasn't until February 21, five days after the ruling, that Trump's lawyers released the “corrected” addresses of six Trump properties named as defendants in James' lawsuit.
“Some of the defendant's addresses in the proposed judgment are incorrect,” defense attorney Clifford S. Robert said in a letter to Engoron.
One such defendant is the Donald J. Trump Revocable Trust, an umbrella trust that owns 100% of Trump's business empire, also known as the Trump Organization.
The New York-registered trust's last known business address was Trump Tower in Manhattan, James said. But in a Feb. 21 letter from defense attorneys to Engoron, they argued that the trust's actual address was 1100 South Ocean Boulevard, or Mar-a-Lago, in West Palm Beach.
Trump's lawyers also sought to “correct” the addresses of two Trump Organization holding companies that are also defendants in the lawsuit.
Like the trust, the holding company also uses Trump Tower as its business address, James said — although Trump said in a February letter that the company's “correct” address was Trump National Golf in Jupiter, Fla. -Despite claiming to be a club.
Similarly, the February letter listed addresses for President Trump's Miami Golf Course and Trump Old Post Office LLC's Jupiter Golf Club. The LLC owned the former president's luxury hotel in Washington, D.C. According to the AG, the headquarters for these two facilities will be located in Trump Tower.
Finally, Trump's lawyers say the “correct address” for another defendant in the fraud case, Trump Tower in Chicago, is Trump's Jupiter golf course in Florida, not Trump Tower in New York. insisted.
In a final ruling dated Feb. 22, the judge used Trump Tower addresses in Manhattan for all six defendants, rather than the Florida address claimed by Trump.
Trump has said in an appeals court that issuing nearly $500 million in bonds would require selling real estate at a loss. He recently posted a $92 million appeals bond for libel against author E. Gene Carroll.
