Trump's next move could show his money is 'smoke and mirrors': ex-president's biographer

If Trump can't pony up enough cash in the $83.3 million award to columnist E. Jean Carroll that the court ruled he must pay even while awaiting appeal — it will prove he's a pretend billionaire.

It would also suggest the Don can't possibly come close to covering the $370 million disgorgement in the New York civil fraud case, according to one of his biographers.

"I think he and his lawyers will scream and yell that this is all unfair and it's rigged, which is of no legal consequence," said David Cay Johnston. "And then he's going to have to make some very hard decisions."

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"I will be very surprised if in about three weeks he's able to come up with the money to appeal the E. Jean Carroll case. And if he can't do that, of course it should get people to understand that his money is all smoke and mirrors."

Last month, Carroll won her second defamation case against former President Donald Trump for claiming she was a liar when she accused him of sexually violating her inside of a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s.

The first trial ended with him being ordered to pay Carroll $5.5 million.

And a decision is expected to be reached by Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron on the $370 million civil fraud case against Trump, his grownup sons Eric and Don Jr., and some executives at the Trump Organization for inflating assets to secure sweetheart deals and loans.

Trump was already found to have defrauded lenders for years back in late December in a decision that, should it hold, could cost him the ability to do business in the Empire State.

As far as being able to utilize his various real estate portfolio as collateral instead of cash, Johnston questions this because he's uncertain if Trump owns the buildings outright or if he owns them through "unrecorded loans."

"That's how we bought Mar-a-Lago; Chase Bank in writing a letter I have promising to never record the mortgage on that property," he said. "And I think there may be other obligations that haven't come to light, but he may be able to persuade the court to let him put up properties as security rather than cash."

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