What happened?
Former President Donald Trump likely owes $600 million from two civil judgments in New York: $355 million in disgorgement for ill-gotten profits, about $100 million in interest plus another $87,500 for every day he doesn’t pay, and $83.3 million in defamation damages to writer E. Jean Carroll.
The numbers
Forbes estimates Trump is worth $2.6 billion, and he plausibly testified he has $400 million in cash assets, William & Mary Law School professor Jim Wheaton told NPR. “It doesn’t take a strong mathematician to understand” Trump doesn’t have enough liquid assets to pay up, said Forbes’ Dan Alexander.
Who said what?
If Trump “does not have funds to pay off the judgment,” New York Attorney General Leticia James told ABC News, “we will ask the judge to seize his assets.” Fox News asked Trump how he plans to pay the $355 million penalty. “It’s a form of Navalny,” he replied, comparing his legal problems to Russia’s abuses of late political dissident Alexei Navalny.
What next?
Trump, who’s appealing the rulings, has 30 days to either put the entire penalty amount in escrow or secure a bond, ABC News said.