CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen recently gave a candid assessment of former President Donald Trump’s fraud trial in New York and said the former president’s business empire is teetering on the brink via Mediaite.
Donald Trump spoke in court for about five minutes before Judge Arthur Engoron cut him off. In September, Judge Engoron issued a summary judgment stating that Trump and the Trump Organization had defrauded financial institutions and insurers by overvaluing their assets.
Since this is a bench trial, the judge will also determine whether Trump needs to pay the $370 million that New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking. Additionally, Engoron has suspended Trump’s New York business licenses, but the ruling has been temporarily postponed pending appeal.
“What’s the risk right now for the Trump Organization?” Wolf Blitzer asked Eisen on Thursday’s edition of The Situation Room.
“Well, it’s substantial, Wolf, including that, when all of these trial and appellate proceedings are concluded, it may no longer be called the Trump Organization,” he replied. “It’s not just the massive over $300 million in financial penalties for the wrongdoing that the attorney general is seeking, but there is injunctive relief this judge has already ordered. It’s been stayed pending appeal.”
Eisen went on to note that if the appeals court rules against them, Trump and his adult sons who work for the Trump Organization will have been given the “corporate death penalty.”
“If it holds up on appeal, this could be the end of the Trump Organization as we have known it for all of these years.”
