Former President Donald Trump may be running out of financial options following a ruling by a New York judge that imposed a fine of almost $355 million and barred the former president from running his companies.
Lisa Rubin, MSNBC legal correspondent, noted on X, formerly Twitter, that Judge Arthur Engoron's order prohibits Trump from borrowing money via any financial institution supervised by the New York Department of Financial Services. Newsweek emailed former President Trump's office on Monday for comment.
Judge Engoron ruled on Friday that Trump will have to pay $354.9 million in penalties. The former president will also be barred from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation or other legal entity in the state for three years.
That ruling arose from a civil suit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James against Trump, his two adult sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, the Trump Organization, and two firm executives, Allen Weisselberg and Jeff McConney, in September 2022. James said they had fraudulently overvaluing assets to secure more favorable bank loans and taxation deals.
Trump continues to maintain his innocence and has repeatedly that the case was politically motivated as he is the GOP frontrunner in the 2024 presidential race.
"Since Judge Engoron's decision, folks have assumed that Trump cannot borrow from any major bank. That's not the case, according to a finance friend," Rubin wrote on X on Sunday, sharing a screenshot of the order.
"The order prohibits borrowing from any institution chartered or registered with New York's Department of Financial Services. And that's not a long list," Rubin added. She provided a link to the Department of Financial Services' webpage showing which institutions it supervises.
Rubin wrote: "To be clear, I am not saying any federally-chartered bank, say, would or should loan to him. But the formal restrictions are not what some folks thought they were."
However, in another thread on X later on Sunday, Rubin pointed to a post from Andrew Weissmann of New York University (NYU) School of Law and co-host of MSNBC's "Prosecuting Donald Trump" podcast.
"Happy to be corrected, but the number of financial institutions chartered by or registered with the State of New York is pretty substantial, per the DFS web site. What am I missing?" Weissmann wrote.
"Today, @AWeissmann_ noted that the number of financial institutions registered or chartered by New York's Department of Financial Services is bigger than the universe of banks alone. He is absolutely right," Rubin wrote in response.
Rubin said she had looked at "Trump's financial disclosure to the federal Office of Government Ethics as of April 2023. Trump filed this disclosure as a presidential candidate, and among other things, it lists his liabilities."
"Of the entities to which Trump still owes money, according to that April 2023 disclosure (screenshot below), at least two — Deutsche Bank Trust Company Americas and the Bryn Mawr Trust Company — are supervised by DFS. And that means neither can loan new money to Trump," she wrote.
A Trump lawyer previously told Newsweek that they plan to appeal. "President Trump will of course appeal and 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," Christopher Kise said,following the judge's ruling.
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Darragh Roche is a U.S. News Reporter based in Limerick, Ireland. His focus is reporting on U.S. politics. He has ... Read more
