Just as the presidential campaign season is set to kick into high gear with the Super Tuesday primaries, Donald Trump finds himself mired down in a perfect storm of legal problems.
In March, the first of four criminal trials Trump faces is set to begin. He also must resolve the looming question of securing the more than half a billion dollars in bonds he needs in order to appeal two crushing civil cases he lost earlier this year.
Trump’s legal travails have done little so far in denting his chances at being renominated to run as the Republican candidate for president once again – he has so far cruised through all the early primaries and is expected to cruise through the 16 primary states that vote on Tuesday.
But his battles in court this month are likely to be much more contentious and could put him a precarious financial position. Instead of focusing on the campaign trail, Trump has had to spend increasing amounts of time huddled with lawyers. He has also had to spend an inordinate amount of the campaign donations he has raised to pay for his legal defense.
For Trump, it will be March Madness in the courts as he attempt to deal with all the issues stemming from his legal challenges.
The bills are coming due
Perhaps Trump’s most pressing legal problem is actually a financial one. By the end of March, the billionaire real estate tycoon must figure out how to post two enormous bonds worth over half-a-billion dollars in order to pursue appeals in two civil cases he lost in recent months.
In mid-February, Trump and his eldest sons were found liable in Manhattan Supreme Court for lying about the value of the family’s real estate assets for years in order to get favorable rates from lenders in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The trial judge in the case ordered Trump to pay $454 million in penalties and barred him from having any involvement in the company for three years, placing the business under the guidance of a court-appointed monitor. The Trump Organization was also blocked from borrowing money from any financial institution registered in New York State.
Trump has claimed that the case and the verdict are politically motivated.
That verdict came on the tail of Trump’s loss in a federal defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who had accused the former president of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. In that case, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages. Trump denied raping Carroll and says the defamation case and verdict are also politically motivated.
Both cases require Trump to post all the money – either in cash or in the form of a bond – in order to proceed with his appeals. That has proven a gargantuan task. On Wednesday, Trump asked the appellate court to allow him to post just $100 million in the corporate fraud case as securing a bond for the full $454 million was proving impossible. His lawyers said he may have to sell some property, which he wouldn’t be able to get back even if his appeal were to be successful.
An appeals judge rejected the motion but did grant an interim stay on the bars against Trump and his sons running the company and getting loans from New York-registered financial institutions, which should provide him some leeway. A five-judge appellate panel has agreed to review the matter later this month. In the meantime, Trump has until March 25 to post the bond or the attorney general’s office could begin seizing his property.
(Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
Stormy Daniels
While Trump seeks to resolve his financial quandaries, he also must prepare for the first criminal case to be brought to trial against him. The case, brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, alleges that Trump falsified business records in attempting to obscure hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels and one-time Playboy Bunny Karen McDougal to bury their claims of having had affairs with him. A trial date has been set for March 25.
The case revolves around an alleged arrangement Trump and his then-lawyer Michael Cohen had with the National Enquirer to identify potentially-damaging stories about Trump as he was running for president the first time in 2016, and make them go away. The dark arts tabloid practice is known as a “catch-and-kill.”
Court documents laid out three instances in which Trump, Cohen and the Enquirer’s publisher, David Pecker, arranged for payouts to people shopping damaging stories about Trump, including Daniels, who was paid $130,000, and McDougal, who received $150,000.
The case primarily focuses on the payment to Daniels which was made directly by Cohen through a shell company he created. Trump is accused of falsifying business records by directing Cohen to be reimbursed through phony invoices for “legal services.”
Trump has also dismissed the case as being politically motivated.
Some breathing room
Trump received a bit of breathing room on Wednesday in a case alleging he attempted to illegally overturn the 2020 election when the Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments over his claims of blanket immunity for his actions while president.
The case, brought in Washington, D.C. by Special Counsel Jack Smith, was initially slated to begin trial at the end of March, but has now been pushed back as Trump has pursued his appeal to have the charges dismissed.
The Supreme Court has agreed to hear oral arguments on April 22, and is expected to rule before the end of its session in June. Barring any other hold-ups, that would put the earliest possible start date for the trial in September or October, just weeks before the election in November.
More storm clouds ahead
These pressing legal matters aren’t the only ones Trump faces. More distantly, he will have to defend himself against charges in Florida federal court accusing him of illegally keeping classified documents after he left the White House. He also must deal with charges in a racketeering case in Georgia that accuses him and many of his advisors of attempting to illegally subvert the 2020 presidential election there.
A preliminary trial date in the Florida documents case has been set for May 20, although that could be pushed back. Prosecutors in Georgia have sought an Aug. 5 trial date in the election case, but the judge has not yet set the calendar. That case has been plunged, at least temporarily, into disarray as the defendants have sought to have Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis dismissed, alleging she had an improper relationship with the special prosecutor she hired to handle the case.
