Newsroom
In a significant legal maneuver, the office of New York Attorney General Letitia James has taken steps to file judgments against former President Donald Trump in Westchester County, N.Y. This move signals a potential effort to seize Trump's properties, including a golf course and a private estate, should he fail to meet a looming Monday deadline to pay a $464 million bond in his financial fraud case.
According to CNN, James's office initiated these actions after giving Trump a 30-day grace period to raise the substantial bond, which now comes due. Trump's legal team has encountered difficulties securing the funds, with purportedly 30 insurers refusing to lend the money. Should Trump fail to comply, James has indicated her readiness to freeze his bank accounts and initiate asset seizures.
The judgment filings in Westchester County, where Trump owns Seven Springs, a luxurious private estate, and a private golf club, represent the first step toward property recovery, as per CNN. Similar actions have been taken in Manhattan, where Trump possesses various real estate holdings.
Meanwhile, in a separate legal battle, prosecutors have informed Judge Juan Merchan that a vast majority of the documents provided to Trump's lawyers, among a trove of 170,000, are unrelated to the hush money case. Prosecutors argue against further trial delays, scheduled to begin on April 15. Despite Trump's lawyers' efforts to have the charges dismissed or the trial postponed, citing newly received documents related to Mueller's findings on Trump's ties to Russia, prosecutors maintain that such delays constitute a strategic ploy.
This development underscores the ongoing legal clashes surrounding Trump, with his legal team successfully postponing all four criminal trials he faces thus far. Merchan must now weigh whether further delays are justified amidst mounting legal tensions.