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Arthur Engoron

'Substantial risks here': Letitia James fights Trump's demand to stay $450M fraud ruling

New York Attorney General Letitia James Monday filed a lengthy opposition to former President Donald Trump's request to stay his more-than $450 million civil fraud trial ruling, court records show.

The 132-page rebuttal filed to the New York Supreme Court appellate division argues Trump has yet to prove he can come up with the cash to pay damages ordered by Justice Arthur Engoron.

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'Word Salad': Legal expert says Alina Habba is speaking 'gibberish' while defending Trump

Alina Habba's latest talking points were purportedly pure mishmash.

Former federal prosecutor Glenn Kirschner diced up Trump's attorney for what he called a "bunch of word salad" for being unable to express a cogent point while pushing back against the narrative that her client, former President Donald Trump, is cash-strapped and boxed in after a New York City judge ruled against him in the damning civil fraud case that will force him to pay $455 million in penalties.

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Trump whines about paying $300M in taxes — despite reports that show he didn't pay taxes

Former President Donald Trump used a New York Daily News article about a subway worker stabbed in the neck to bemoan the plight of a tragic victim: himself, a taxpayer made to cough up $300 million.

"But they go after TRUMP, who paid $300,000,000 plus in Taxes," Trump wrote on Truth Social Wednesday. "Businesses are FLEEING New York because of the TRUMP PERSECUTION."

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Trump lawyers 'could face discipline' if they shrugged off Weisselberg lies

Donald Trump's lawyers could be in big trouble now that his accountant has pleaded guilty to perjury in his fraud trial.

The Trump Organization's chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg admitted to lying under oath during the former president's fraud trial, and his attorneys could lose their bar licenses for sitting idly while he presented false testimony, reported The Daily Beast.

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Trump lawyer rants about 'tyrannical' DA after ex-CFO Allen Weisselberg gets plea deal

Donald Trump's attorney accused a Manhattan District Attorney of "tyrannical conduct" by offering a plea deal to a former Trump Organization CFO who admitted he repeatedly lied to prosecutors.

Todd Blanche scribbled off an 11-page missive to Alvin Bragg — the prosecutor who accuses Trump of paying hush money to an adult film star before the 2016 election — condemning Allen Weisselberg's plea deal as a political conspiracy with New York Attorney General Letitia James, who successfully sued Trump for upwards of $450 million.

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Trump is far weaker than we think: legal expert

Critics of former President Donald Trump were bitterly disappointed when the U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear Donald Trump's presidential immunity argument — and set hearings for the week of April 22.

Those critics aren't so much angry with the High Court for hearing Trump's arguments but for waiting so long. Special counsel Jack Smith's cases against Trump can’t proceed until the question is resolved, which means the justices have greatly reduced the possibility of a trial starting before the 2024 presidential election.

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Trump again urges judge to delay $83.3 million payout to E. Jean Carroll

Former President Donald Trump is once again asking a court to delay the $83.3 million civil judgment against him in the defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll.

According to Aaron Katersky and Peter Charalambous for NBC News, Trump's attorneys Alina Habba and John D. Sauer "renewed Trump's request that Judge Lewis Kaplan delay the judgment for 30 days after Kaplan resolves the post-trial motions, or that he permits Trump to post a reduced bond of $24.475 million."

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'Bond remains elusive': Trump's latest rant seen as sign he can't pay massive legal bill

Former president Donald Trump late Friday night railed against the civil fraud case in which he was ordered to pay hundreds of millions of dollars. Some saw it as a sign that he can't even afford the bond needed to appeal it.

Trump has promised to challenge the massive judgment, but legal experts suggest it will be unsuccessful, except for maybe shaving some money off the total fine.

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'He needs to be aggressively muzzled': Insiders say Trump's killing defense lawyers' work

Donald Trump's interference behind the scenes and in courtrooms is severely impacting his lawyers' ability to defend him adequately which is leading to harsher-than-expected verdicts, according to insiders who have watched him in action.

With most of Trump's civil suits behind him, combined with a financial fraud trial, that have resulted in over a half billion dollars in penalties, the former president now enters a more perilous stage as his criminal trials loom that could send him off to prison.

According to a report from the New York Times, Trump's appearances in court, his grandstanding, his decision to take the stand and his very presence is making his lawyers' lives a living hell as they are forced to bend to his demands — many of them that are detrimental to the case at hand.

In an interview with the Times, former Trump lawyer Ty Cobb had some simple advice for the lawyers handling the Manhattan hush money case slated to start later in March: "I would expect Trump to try to act up. He needs to be aggressively muzzled by the lawyers if he is to avoid offending the jury.”

ALSO READ: Alina Habba is persona non grata at her Pennsylvania law school

As the report notes, that has been a continuing problem when the former president is sitting in on trials at times when he doesn't have to be there.

The Times is reporting, "Typically, defendants play a role in preparing their cases, and sometimes an important one. Seldom, though, do they formulate, let alone dictate, trial strategy or make spontaneous tactical decisions from the defense table. In two of his recent losing civil cases Mr. Trump did exactly that. The major questions in the cases were essentially decided by the time Mr. Trump arrived, but the trials were held to determine what penalties he’d face."

Adding to his woes is his presence in the courtroom that has led his attorneys to "grandstand" before the court to make him happy which has led to admonishments from the bench, most notably in the battles between attorney Alina Habba and Judge Arthur Engoron.

Trump's decisions to testify — sometimes over his lawyer's advice — has also come back to haunt him with the financial fraud trial as exhibit A.

"After the trial, the judge came down hard on Mr. Trump, imposing a $355 million penalty that, after interest, has climbed to more than $450 million. In his ruling, Justice Engoron singled out Mr. Trump’s testimony — Ms. James called him as a witness — writing that when he took the stand, he 'rarely responded to the questions asked,' behavior that 'severely compromised his credibility.'"

The report adds, "Mr. Trump also undercut his lawyers in his other recent civil trial, in which the writer E. Jean Carroll asked a jury to penalize him for defaming her. The former president attended nearly every day of that trial, badgering Ms. Habba, who led his defense. Mr. Trump audibly exhorted her to 'get up' to protest something said by the judge, a witness or Ms. Carroll’s lawyers, at one point banging Ms. Habba’s arm with the back of his hand. Sometimes she took his directives; other times she shook her head lightly, apparently brushing him off."

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Jack Smith 'visibly shocked' as Aileen Cannon doubles down on order he calls 'clear error'

Judge Aileen Cannon expressed skepticism in court Friday when special counsel Jack Smith's legal team argued against a ruling they've described as a potentially dangerous blunder.

Cannon presided over a federal court conference in Fort Pierce, Florida, to discuss her order, challenged by Smith, to unseal sensitive materials in former President Donald Trump's classified document case, Lawfare's Anna Bower reports.

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RNC at 'high risk' of breaking the law by paying Trump's legal bills: expert

Even if the Republican National Committee was flush with cash — which it is not — there is only so much it can do to bail Donald Trump out of his legal predicament when it comes to funneling cash to him.

With the imminent departure of chair Ronna McDaniel and plans by the former president to load the leadership up with MAGA loyalists like his daughter-in-law Lara Trump, concerns have been raised by Republicans that the RNC would become another cash cow for the embattled ex-president while ignoring GOP officeholders going into the November election.

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Trump facing 'nightmare' scenario as he races clock to raise a half billion dollars

With the clock ticking and interest piling up by the day, Donald Trump faces a "nightmare" scenario where he has only about three weeks to come up with approximately a half billion dollars just to appeal a ruling from Judge Arthur Engoron that some legal experts claim he has no chance of winning.

As CNN is reporting, it is not that the former president can't raise the money, but more to what extremes he will have to go, which could include an asset fire sale in a bad market where buyers can take advantage of him or finding a bank willing to take a wild gamble that they might not get their money back.

With the former president having to come up with $454 million to satisfy a financial fraud judgment authored by Judge Arthur Engoron and another $83.3 million owed to writer E. Jean Carroll stemming from two civil trials, "Trump’s lawyers said he may have to dump some of his properties under 'exigent circumstances' to raise cash quickly," reports CNN.

ALSO READ: ‘America First’ is Trump first, Russia close second

As the report notes, Trump is facing some major roadblocks if he wants to avoid the courts and lawyers seizing his assets, one of which is that he reportedly doesn't have up-to-date personal financial info to hand over to any potential lender.

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Seizure of Trump properties in weeks due to 'well laid out' Engoron opinion: legal scholar

According to more than one legal scholar, Judge Arthur Engoron's comprehensive 92-page opinion following the Donald Trump financial fraud trial is so concise, bulletproof, and detailed that it will withstand any appeal the former president may make to avoid paying the nearly half billion dollars he has been ordered to pay.

With the clock ticking that sets up a scenario where, should Trump be unable to secure an appeals bond in the next few weeks, Engoron will be in the position where he can order the seizure of one or more Trump properties to ensure his debt to society is paid.

In interviews with the Daily Beast's Jose Pagliery, a Brooklyn Law School appeals expert and a former prosecutor teaching at the esteemed John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York praised Engoron's precisely written opinion that would remove the need by any appeals court to have to peruse the entire 6,758-page trial transcript from the 11-week trial.

RELATED: Trump's 'desperation for cash' on full display after $100 million offer flops: biographer

According to Brooklyn Law's Jennifer B. Arlin, "The reason why this opinion is so long and so specific is to emphasize to the appellate court how much care the judge took in issuing this decision."

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