Friends, I doubt the subject of today’s Office Hours is keeping you up at night worrying — unless your name is Donald J. Trump. But the question of how he’s going to come up with the cash he owes provides a window into the finances of America’s 45th president. As you recall, the Friday before last, Judge Arthur Engoron determined that Trump owes more than $350 million in penalties in his New York state business fraud case. Engoron also ordered Trump to pay additional pre-judgment interest going back as far as when New York attorney general Letitia James began her investigation in March 2019. The attorney general’s office has calculated the interest due so far brings the current total he owes to more than $450 million. The statutory 9 percent annual interest rate will keep accruing at more than $600,000 per week unless or until Trump puts up the entire amount. Trump has until March 17 to decide what to do. If he can’t or won’t pay the amount due, Attorney General James said she is prepared to “ask the judge to seize his assets,” including some of his best-known properties such as 40 Wall Street. Trump has already put $5.5 million into a state-controlled escrow account to cover the first defamation judgment he owes E. Jean Carroll. He owes her another $83 million following the federal court ruling in late January that he had defamed her again, which he is appealing. Even if winning the presidency this year enables Trump to shut down the federal criminal cases, it won’t help him avoid the civil liability he faces in New York. So where does Trump come up with the cash? I see three possibilities, none of them easy. ... |
