🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
Former President Donald Trump will face a "fire sale" of his New York properties if he chooses to sell them, according to author Tim O'Brien who wrote the 2005 biography TrumpNation: The Art of Being The Donald.
On Friday, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump will be fined roughly $355 million and be barred from doing business in New York for three years after a monthslong civil trial from late last year into early January. The trial was to decide the damages Trump would face after Engoron found that he committed fraud by inflating the value of his assets. Trump continues to maintain his innocence and claims that the case was politically motivated as he is the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race.
Appearing on MSNBC's Velshi on Saturday morning, O'Brien who is also a political analyst for the network, said that Trump is "gonna have to sell somethings."
"If he sells urban skyscrapers in post-COVID cities where the occupancy rates are low, tenants have been fleeing, the values have been degraded because of that, it's gonna to be something of a fire sale," he told host Ali Velshi. "Other developers are gonna know he needs to sell it, he won't get top price. He's also always loathed to part with his toys and I think that's also going to be stressful."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign via email for comment.
Following Engoron's ruling, Trump's lawyer Christopher Kise said that the former president will appeal the judge's ruling, telling Newsweek that Trump "remains confident the Appellate Division will ultimately correct the innumerable and catastrophic errors made by a trial court untethered to the law or to reality."
Meanwhile, O'Brien, a senior executive editor at Bloomberg Opinion, told Velshi on Saturday morning, "I don't think his appeal will be successful. I could be proven wrong, but [Letitia] Tish James, the New York State Attorney General, came at him under statutes that give the attorney general a lot of prosecutorial deference; the court system in New York has always respected that."
He added that the former president "can't help himself but continue to go after the rule of law and try to degrade American's faith in a system of laws. The judges don't take kindly to that, prosecutors don't take kindly to that. It hurt him in court in the E. Jean Carroll case when he went after the judge. It hurt him in this court when he went after Engoron and he continues to do it. I think, to his own detriment."
New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, The Trump Organization and two firm executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney, in September 2022. The other defendants in the case have also faced financial penalties and have been barred from doing business in New York for periods of time.
Trump reacted to the ruling on his social media platform Truth Social on Friday: "A Crooked New York State Judge, working with a totally Corrupt Attorney General who ran on the basis of 'I will get Trump,' before knowing anything about me or my company, has just fined me $355 Million based on nothing other than having built a GREAT COMPANY. ELECTION INTERFERENCE. WITCH HUNT."
fairness meter
About the writer
Rachel Dobkin is a Newsweek reporter based in New York. Her focus is reporting on politics. Rachel joined Newsweek in ... Read more