Attorneys for the Trump Organization on Monday sought to halt and overturn a New York judge’s order to install a monitor over the former President’s real estate company, claiming the state overreached by tying up “nearly $5 billion in assets” during the New York Attorney General’s $250 million fraud lawsuit.
Paperwork filed Monday challenged Manhattan Judge Arthur Engoron’s Thursday decision. They are also seeking a stay to prevent the appellate court ruling from taking effect while their appeal is pending.
Trump attorneys argued that Engoron overstepped his bounds by requiring an outside watchdog to keep tabs on the Trump Organization for the duration of Attorney General Letitia James’ civil case and that he had restricted the company’s ability to operate, putting “immediate and unlawful prejudgment restraint” on what they said was nearly $5 billion in assets.
Engoron wrote in an 11-page order that Trump and the Trump Organization “demonstrated propensity to engage in persistent fraud” and that appointing an outside monitor “is the most prudent and narrowly tailored mechanism to ensure there is no further fraud or illegality” pending the resolution of the lawsuit.
Trump Organization lawyer Christopher Kise said in a statement that Engoron’s order “grossly expands” the Attorney General’s power “to interfere in private commercial transactions” and “imposes vague and onerous obligations which will impede the operations of an extraordinarily successful business empire.”
Attorney General James’ office did not respond to Politico’s request for comment.
