Former President Donald Trump is facing a potential verdict in his New York fraud trial and the final day of evidence in Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis’ conflict of interest hearing in Georgia. Judge Arthur Engoron has ruled that Trump, his adult sons, and his parent company, The Trump Organization, fraudulently inflated the value of their assets to obtain favorable bank loans. Letitia James, the New York attorney general who took the case, has requested that Engoron fine Trump $370 million and ban him from the New York real estate business for life. Engeron has already stripped key Trump companies of their right to trade in New York.
Gregory Germain, a law professor at Syracuse University, told Newsweek that Trump could be the subject of criminal prosecution if his companies continue to trade. A receiver was appointed to liquidate any properties he owned in New York, and if they went into effect, it would be a crime for him or his entities to continue operating any businesses in New York without a business license. James asked that Trump be banned from the real estate industry in the state for life after Engoron found that Trump fraudulently exaggerated the value of his assets to obtain bank loans.
Trump has maintained his innocence and claimed the case is politically motivated as he is the GOP front-runner in the 2024 presidential nomination. In Georgia, a judge must decide if Willis should be removed from the case against Trump for alleged election interference after revelations that she was in a relationship with Nathan Wade, the chief prosecutor in the case. If a motion to remove Willis from the case is successful, it could delay Trump’s trial well past the presidential inauguration day in January 2025. If elected president, Trump would then have several options to postpone the case, including asking the Supreme Court to delay it until he has left office.
