Legal professionals are cautioning this week that the judge overseeing the fraud trial of former President Donald Trump in New York may have erred in his choice to dissolve a number of Trump’s companies.
Prior to the trial’s commencement, Judge Arthur Engoron concluded that Trump had dishonestly inflated his net worth and ordered the dissolution of specific New York-based companies associated with the 45th president. Nevertheless, experts in law informed The New York Times that Engoron “possibly lacked the authority to terminate the corporations.”
The judge’s penalty was temporarily suspended by an appeals court last week as it reviewed the ruling.
“President Trump very much appreciates the court’s consideration and ruling,” Trump attorney Christopher Kise said after the appellate court took up the case, adding that it would help “pave the way for a much needed, and deliberative, review of the trial court’s many errors.”
Engoron possesses the power, as stated in the Times report, to individually amend the order and employ his expected January verdict in order to alter the penalty prior to the appellate court’s judgment.
“The judge has extraordinary powers to fashion a remedy to curtail and punish the misconduct, meaning bad news for Trump,” Steven Cohen, a former top official at the New York attorney general’s office, told the Times.
Apart from the $250 million fine sought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, Engoron possesses the authority to prohibit Trump and his business from entering into new commercial real estate contracts or seeking loans from state-licensed banks. Furthermore, he has the power to prevent Trump from conducting any business activities within the state.
Nevertheless, the report indicates that the part of the order that terminates certain New York companies owned by Trump is less likely to be upheld.
As per the report, the order revokes a particular type of business certification that allows Trump’s New York-based companies to operate under specific names. This may necessitate around 10 of the former president’s businesses to obtain new certificates. Additionally, the order mentions the dissolution of the canceled LLCs, which are the limited liability companies overseeing Trump’s properties.
Legal experts state that a judge cannot dissolve an LLC unless one of its members specifically requests it.
“He’s going beyond what the statute seems to allow,” David Lowden, a lawyer who specializes in commercial transactions and corporate law, told the Times, predicting that the order would not destroy Trump’s empire but merely result in a “simple bureaucratic irritation, resolvable through paperwork.”
The judge’s order has been noted by additional legal experts to encompass all ten of Trump’s New York companies holding the certificate, rather than just the smaller number specified in James’ complaint.
Certain experts have contended that imposing penalties on a company that is not implicated in any wrongdoing could potentially involve the appeals court.
“He may have bought himself an appellate problem,” Cohen said, “and fueled an otherwise dubious claim of bias.”
Engoron, Trump, and his legal team engaged in numerous contentious exchanges over a span of 10 weeks before the civil trial reached its conclusion on December 13.
Earlier this week, the judge faced criticism for seizing another opportunity to launch a scathing attack on the former president.
In the case where New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses Trump of fraudulently inflating the value of his properties and assets in financial statements, Engoron dismissed the former president’s appeal for a directed ruling to absolve him of guilt.
Engorn disagreed with Trump’s plea for the court to rule in his favor and highlighted several “fatal flaws” in the former president’s defense, including the evidence presented by Eli Bartov, a research professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business.
Trump, the frontrunner in the Republican presidential primary, has vehemently denied any wrongdoing and labeled the investigation as a politically motivated “witch hunt” aimed at derailing his 2024 campaign.
Closing arguments are slated to take place in early January in New York.