New York appeals court judge on Friday rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to stop the ongoing $250 million civil fraud trial, but temporarily halted the process of breaking up the former president’s businesses.
Associate Justice Peter Moulton issued the ruling after a brief hearing Friday afternoon. It leaves Trump’s empire untouched for at least another month and perhaps offers the former president and his family a glimmer of hope.
Trump sought to put Judge Arthur Engoron’s surprise summary judgment order last week that he is liable for fraud and must cancel business certificates for many of his business entities on hold pending further appeal.
100%
The homestead exemption protects people from being forced to sell their home to satisfy a debt (in many states it also exempts a portion of the home’s value from property taxes), but if an LLC owns it and they don’t, those same protections don’t apply. If, instead of Trump putting his home in his own name, he assigned it to an LLC, he did so to get some sort of a benefit. Potentially losing his home is the cost he of that decision.
Caveat: if the LLC was renting the property to Trump and they had an explicit lease with a definite term, then some protections might apply.
Sources:
One interesting twist that I’ve heard is that Trump put his naming rights in the LLC also. It’s possible that the rights to the Trump name get sold to some bidder.
If so, who wants to get together and buy the rights? I’m thinking we can make Trump Brand Liberal Trading cards (celebrating liberal icons who made great strides in civil rights, worker protections, etc). Then there could be Trump Brand Clothing - designed for LGBTQ people. And so on. With 0% of proceeds going to Donald What’s-His-Name. I imagine right wing heads would explode from having to oppose Trump branded items.