The verdict in Donald Trump’s $370m fraud trial will be coming later than expected, with a decision expected in early to mid-February, a New York court spokesperson said on Thursday.
The New York judge Arthur Engoron had initially said he would aim to deliver a verdict on the potential $370m fine by 31 January. “I will do my best” to meet the deadline, he said on 11 January after the trial’s closing arguments.
Engoron had found Trump guilty of fraud – inflating the value of his assets on financial documents – in a pre-trial ruling in late September. The trial was over whether Trump and his company had committed fraud with intent, which is punishable with a hefty fine. The New York attorney general’s office, which brought the suit against Trump, is asking for $370m in disgorgement and to ban Trump from doing business in New York.
The court spokesperson said the new timeline was a “rough estimate” and the decision will be a written filing.
Though the court did not specify why Engoron is taking extra time on his verdict, reports have suggested a letter from the former federal judge Barbara Jones, sent on 26 January, is likely a factor in the delay.
Jones has been serving as the court-appointed monitor overseeing the Trump Organization’s financial reports since November 2022.
In her letter, Jones told Engoron that she identified “certain deficiencies in the financial information that I have reviewed, including disclosures that are either incomplete, present results inconsistently, and/or contain errors”.
Included in Jones’s letter were her concerns about a $48m loan Trump received in 2012 by an entity affiliated with his building in Chicago. Trump reported the loan, which has no formal loan agreement, on his financial statement as a liability for multiple years. But in conversations with the Trump Organization, the company determined that “this loan never existed”.
Jones had warned that while she is “not in a position to conclude whether fraudulent activity occurred”, she noted that “absent steps to address [the deficiencies], my observations suggest misstatements and errors may continue to occur”.
Given that the case is over Trump’s honesty on these financial statements, Jones’s letter could have an effect on Engoron’s verdict, including how much he ultimately decides to fine Trump.
