Trump’s already massive New York civil fraud penalty has grown by $24M in interest ahead of a Thursday court showdown

Winning on the state appellate level or, if that fails, in federal court would mean the judgment is reversed, and Trump’s massive accumulated debt to Attorney General Letitia James is erased.

(After the bench trial, Engoron hit Trump with an initial cash judgment of $355 million. That rose to $454 million on February 23, when retroactive interest was factored in, and a 9% annual interest rate was applied going forward.)

By winning his appeal, Trump would also dodge the judgment’s non-monetary punishments, which are many.

Trump would escape the constant gaze of the court-appointed fiscal watchdog monitoring the Trump Organization, Trump’s Manhattan-based real-estate and golf-resort empire, since November of 2022.

He’d no longer face having a yet-named compliance director preside over all major fiscal decisions.

Winning would mean Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Eric Trump would no longer face being banned for two years from running Trump Org or any other business in New York state. Gone, too, would be the judgment’s three-year ban on Trump and his companies applying for loans from any bank that operates in New York.

Trump would also get back the $175 million bond — plus more than a million dollars in interest — he had to post in order to hold the AG’s office at bay.

Losing, though, would deal a significant blow.

By appealing, Trump has kept all of these fraud punishments on ice, with the exception of the Trump Org monitoring, which is ongoing. If he exhausts his appeals and loses, those punishments would begin.

Losing would also mean the total amount he owes New York — an amount that would reach half a billion dollars if the appeal drags out into the Spring of 2025 — comes due immediately.

Read Trump’s 116-page appeal here.