Judge Arthur Engoron originally planned to rule in the massive $370 fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump on Jan. 31.
New York Attorney General Letitia James accuses the Trump Organization, under the direction of Trump and his adult sons, of inflating and deflating financial assets including his empire of golf courses to defraud banks and insurance companies while building its real estate empire.
Judge Engoron, however, blew past the self-imposed Jan. 31 deadline. According to The New York Times, legal experts believe that Engoron is awaiting “juicy new details” from an emerging plea deal from Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization.
The potential plea agreement could reveal Weisselberg, under the direction of Trump, lied on the stand in the civil fraud trial in an effort to protect the former American president.
If that happened, it would be a game-changer according to legal experts.
“Why has Judge Engoron not issued his decision on the Trump civil fraud? One reason could well be the news that the Trump chief financial officer may be pleading to lying to Judge Engoron in a way to help Trump,” said former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “And the Judge is waiting for that to support his decision against DJT. This [would] be another big nail in the Trump civil fraud coffin.”
