According to three people familiar with the court decision, a judge in New York state appellate court has placed the civil fraud trial involving the New York attorney general’s office and former President Donald Trump on temporary hold. This raises doubts about whether the trial will proceed as scheduled next month.
According to people with direct knowledge of the litigation, the appellate judge granted an emergency request made by attorneys representing Trump, his eldest sons, and the Trump Organization. They requested that the appeals court halt the case until Judge Arthur Engoron, the lower court judge in charge of it, makes a decision on a crucial point.
One week before the $250 million fraud action is scheduled to go to trial on October 2, the appellate court judge ordered all briefs to be produced by September 25. The start of the trial may be postponed pending the appellate court’s decision. The trial may begin on schedule if the appeals court concurs and the lower court’s problem is settled sooner.
As said in a statement, New York Attorney General Letitia James “will be ready for trial” and “we are confident in our case.”
A state appellate panel in New York decided in favor of Trump in June, finding that if certain transactions were completed by a specific date, the statute of limitations had already run out and that the defendants had tolling arrangements in place for another date. “Determine, if necessary, the full range of defendants bound by the tolling agreement,” the panel directed Engoron to do. The claim was dismissed by the appeals court for Ivanka Trump.
Regarding the statute of limitations, Engoron has not made that decision.
In pretrial papers, the attorneys for James and Trump have separately requested Engoron to find in their favor. James’ agency requested that the judge declare Trump’s financial statements to be fraudulent and deceptive. The judge was requested to dismiss the lawsuit by Trump’s attorneys, who primarily relied on the statute of limitations defense. The motions will be the subject of oral arguments on September 22.
The trial has been put on hold as Engoron considers Trump’s attorneys’ request to review the statute of limitations. The persons stated that after Trump’s lawyers requested that the appeals court intervene and put the case on hold, the request was turned down. Though the public was not informed of the oral argument, the judge agreed to postpone the trial but not to suspend the case.
At the September 22 hearing, Engoron’s decision regarding the statute of limitations may settle the matter before the appeals court.
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