Former President Donald Trump’s attorney Alina Habba said Wednesday that the New York civil fraud appeal will be “a long game.”
In February, a New York judge ordered the former president, his two sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and other Trump Organization officials to pay hefty fines, accusing them of committing fraud. President Trump was ordered to pay $355 million with interest under that judgment.
During a Fox News appearance, Ms. Habba said that the case was “lost before the trial started,” referring to Judge Arthur Engoron’s prior ruling that asserted the Trump Organization committed fraud. The trial was held to determine the penalty.
“We’re waiting on an appeal,” she said in the interview. “Obviously, the judge was receptive to some of our arguments. We appeared before the appellate division just last week. He obviously amended the order in terms of allowing the Trump children and Trump family to continue to operate their business and to get loans, which was a big step in the right direction.”
The appeals process, she added, “is going to be a long game” and said that “we were not going to be successful.”
“We’re just going to have to push and push and push and hopefully have our facts and case heard, just like it was last week,” the attorney continued to say. “And chip away at this.”
Other than the fine, Judge Engoron also barred the former president from applying for loans from any New York state chartered or registered financial institution, as well as banning President Trump from serving as a director or officer of any corporation in the state.
Last week, State Appellate Court Judge Anil Singh issued a partial stay in that verdict, blocking Judge Engoron’s several-year ban on business operations and applications for loans in New York. However, the judge denied the Trump lawyers’ request to allow him to pay a $100 million bond.
He also issued an “interim stay” on the judge’s order that blocked the defendants from applying for loans from a New York financial institution, which some analysts have said would give the former president more leeway in paying the bond to appeal the case. The Republican presidential front-runner’s lawyers had told the appellate court that the lending ban had made it impossible for him to secure a bond for the full amount.
His attorneys warned he might have to sell some of his assets and properties to cover the penalty and would not have any way of getting them back if the appeal is successful.
“The exorbitant and punitive amount of the judgment coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump lawyers Clifford Robert, Alina Habba, and Michael Farina wrote in court papers detailing the $100 million bond offer.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who brought the fraud case, wanted the court to reject their requests and said he has “insufficient liquid assets” to pay the judgment.
Outside of the fraud case, President Trump faces criminal charges in Atlanta, Washington, New York City in Florida. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges.
Also in New York City, a judge set a March 25 trial date for a case alleging that President Trump falsified business records for payments he made toward the end of the 2016 campaign. This week, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, the prosecutor who brought the charges, requested the judge to hand down a gag order on the former president before the trial starts.
In January, a jury ordered the former president to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for allegedly defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s. President Trump was also ordered to pay Ms. Carroll $5 million a jury awarded her in a related trial last year.
He has denied her allegations and has pleaded not guilty to the charges in the four criminal cases.
