A New York appellate division judge ruled that multimillion-dollar penalties imposed on former President Donald Trump in his civil fraud case will not be paused while he appeals the judgment, but the US Supreme Court set oral argument for the week of April 22 on a claim of immunity for criminal acts while he was still in the White House.
Justice Anil Singh temporarily denied the former president’s request to stay the enforcement of the more than $454 million in penalties a different New York judge ordered him to pay for conspiring to alter his net worth to receive tax and insurance benefits.
Trump’s lawyers told the appellate court earlier Wednesday that Singh rejected the 2020 election loser’s offer to post a $100 million bond, arguing that the lending ban in the Feb. 16 verdict made it impossible for him to secure a bond for the full amount.
Trump’s lawyers proposed the smaller bond offer in court papers as they sought an order from the appellate court preventing New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office from enforcing the judgment while his appeal plays out.
Singh ruled that Trump needs to post the full amount, which would pause collection automatically.
In his Feb. 16 ruling, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump lied for years about his wealth in order to secure favorable loans and make deals that helped prop up his real estate empire. He was ordered to pay $354.9 million in penalties plus nearly $100 million in interest.
The verdict was finalized in New York on February 23, 2024, giving Trump a 30-day window to appeal, which he has vowed to do.
Within that same time frame, he must deposit “sufficient funds” in a court-controlled account or secure a bond for the total amount, according to a spokesperson for the New York Attorney General, who brought the case.
In all, the disgraced former president and the co-defendants in his civil fraud case owe the state more than $465 million plus post-judgment interest of nearly $112,000 each day.
Those co-defendants are each of Trump’s two eldest sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr., plus former longtime Trump Organization finance chief Allen Weisselberg.
They have until March 25 to secure a stay, a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals, or they’ll be forced to pay the monetary penalty or risk having some of their assets seized.
In related news, the federal Supreme Court will review Trump’s unprecedented claim that he is shielded from prosecution for his alleged efforts to disenfranchise tens of millions of voters by conspiring to remain in power despite his 2020 election loss.
The justices set argument for the week of April 22 to consider a unanimous ruling from a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit that rejected Trump’s sweeping assertion of immunity.
Trump’s pretrial proceedings in D.C. will remain on hold until a ruling is issued, putting the Supreme Court in the politically fraught position of influencing the timing of a federal election-obstruction trial for the leading Republican presidential candidate.
A brief unsigned order said the justices were not “expressing a view on the merits” of the case and would consider only the question of whether and to what extent a former president has “immunity from criminal prosecution for conduct alleged to involve official acts during his tenure in office.”
Trump faces four felony counts brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith in connection with what prosecutors allege was a plan to overturn Biden’s 2020 presidential victory: conspiring to defraud the United States, conspiring to obstruct the formal certification in Congress of President Biden’s victory, obstructing a congressional proceeding and conspiracy against rights — in this case, the right to vote.
He challenged the indictment, saying former presidents are immune from prosecution, at least for actions related to their official duties, unless first impeached and convicted by Congress. On Feb. 6, the D.C. Circuit delivered a forceful rebuke of that novel argument.
“We cannot accept former President Trump’s claim that a president has unbounded authority to commit crimes that would neutralize the most fundamental check on executive power — the recognition and implementation of election results,” wrote the three judges, two nominated by Biden and the third by President George H.W. Bush.
Trump asked the Supreme Court to put the appeals court ruling on pause and give him time to seek rehearing by a full complement of D.C. Circuit judges.
His lawyers argued that he should not be sidelined from the campaign trail by a months-long criminal trial.
The former president is separately facing a state trial in New York that is scheduled to start in late March on charges of falsifying business records to conceal a hush money payment during the 2016 election.
He’s also charged in Florida with allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing government efforts to retrieve them; that trial is scheduled for May 20 but could be pushed back. And he was indicted in Georgia for allegedly participating in a massive conspiracy to undo the 2020 election results in that state.