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Forget about Super Tuesday. For Trump, it’s going to be March Madness in court.
Several of Trump’s legal problems are likely to come to a head in March, just as the presidential race kicks into full gear
Who has time to run for office?
Just as the presidential-campaign season kicks into high gear with the Super Tuesday primaries, Donald Trump finds himself mired in a perfect storm of legal problems.
In March, the first of four criminal trials Trump faces is set to begin. He also must resolve the pressing issue of securing the more than half a billion dollars in bonds he needs in order to appeal two civil cases he lost earlier this year.
Trump’s legal travails have done little so far to dent his chances of being nominated to run once again as the Republican candidate for president: He is expected to cruise to a win in the 16 primary states that vote on Tuesday.
But instead of focusing on the campaign trail, Trump has had to spend increasing amounts of time huddled with lawyers. He has also had to spend much of the money he has raised through campaign donations in order to pay for his legal defense.
For Trump, it will be March Madness in the courts as he attempts to deal with all the issues stemming from his legal challenges.
The bills coming due Trump’s most pressing legal problem may actually be a financial one. By the end of March, the billionaire real-estate tycoon must figure out how to post two enormous bonds totaling over half a billion dollars in order to pursue appeals in two civil cases he lost in recent months.
In mid-February, Trump and his two eldest sons were found liable in New York State Supreme Court, a trial-level court, for lying about the value of the family’s real-estate assets for years in order to get favorable rates from lenders, in a case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. The trial judge in the case ordered Trump to pay $454 million in penalties, barred him from having any involvement in the company for three years and placed the business under the guidance of a court-appointed monitor. The judge also blocked the Trump Organization from borrowing money from any financial institution registered in New York state.
Trump has claimed that the case and the verdict are politically motivated.
That verdict came on the heels of Trump’s loss in a federal defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, who had accused him of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. In that case, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83.3 million in damages. Trump denied raping Carroll and has said that defamation case and ruling are also politically motivated.