The new year could be off to a rough start for Donald Trump.
The former president faces a $250 million fine and ban from doing business in New York when the judge overseeing his civil fraud trial rules in the case later in January.
The trial in Manhattan Supreme Court, which has been on hiatus since Dec. 13, is scheduled to resume with closing arguments on Jan. 11, and Judge Arthur Engoron said he hopes to rule on the case without a jury by the end of the month.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is seeking at least $250 million in restitution of alleged ill-gotten gains from Trump, 77, and his co-defendants, including his two oldest sons, Eric and Donald Trump Jr.
The 2024 Republican presidential candidate has been accused of exaggerating the value of his assets by billions in annual financial statements to get better terms for loans and insurance.
Engoron has already found Trump liable for fraud, but other allegations in James’ lawsuit, as well as a potential final penalty, have yet to be decided.
The judge could order Trump to pay less or more than what the AG is seeking, but one legal expert said he is more likely to either rule that the former president owes the full $250 million or nothing.
“There was no clear figure for either ill-gotten gain or loss, so I don’t know how the judge would come up with another figure,” Evan Gottlob, a former prosecutor and white-collar defense attorney, told The Post.
The court heard from about 40 witnesses since the trial began on Oct. 2, but not much of the testimony focused on how much each creditor or insurer lost because of Trump’s alleged fraud — making it unlikely that Engoron would walk away with any more than the amount James looking for
“I doubt the judge in this case would exceed the amount because they have no basis for it unless they have a forensic accountant going through a huge organization like the Trump Organization, all their books and all the ill-gotten gains they’ve received,” Gottlob said.
It’s also unlikely the judge will set the penalty below $250 million, he said.
“I think it would be very difficult, unless one of the judge’s secretaries was a secret financial expert, to come up with a number that was significantly lower — based on what? The evidence doesn’t really go either way, so it’s either $250 million or it’s not,” Gottlob said.
And he said judges tend to try to impose financial penalties.
“When you’re a judge, you understand what they can pay, whether it’s through bankruptcy or not,” Gottlob said. “I think the Trump Organization is worth between $1 billion and $3 billion … there’s money to pay.”
Engoron, in a bombshell ruling from just before the trial began, found Trump liable on one of the AG’s primary fraud claims, and the judge revoked the Trump Organization’s business licenses.
The company can continue to do business because the latter part of the ruling was stayed by an appeals court at least until Engoron issues its verdict.
But even after the verdict, Gottlob predicts it will be years before the case is over, as Trump is likely to appeal any negative ruling all the way to the Empire State’s highest court.
“This is a case that I see, especially knowing how much the former president likes to fight rulings against him, that it will go all the way to the Court of Appeals,” Gottlob said.
The earliest the case will be decided is after the 2024 presidential election because “courts don’t like to get involved in politics,” Gottlob suggested, adding that a final decision could not come until 2025 or 2026.
As for the business license revocation, Gottlob said he thinks it will be years before Trump’s real estate empire feels the effects because of the decision’s pause and pending appeals.
Even if the ruling goes into effect, Trump could find ways around it — for example, by running shell companies, the lawyer said.
Still, “the possibility of losing business licenses for a minimum of five years or even more is pretty damaging,” Gottlob said.
“New York is like the epicenter of the business world.”
The real estate mogul is a defendant along with his two oldest sons, the Trump Org and others in the lawsuit, which accuses Trump of inflating the value of his assets in annual financial statements from 2011 to 2021.
Testimony at the trial lasted 11 weeks and included the former commander-in-chief, children Eric, 39, Ivanka, 42, and Donald Jr., 45, all taking the stand.
The former first daughter was also initially a defendant in the suit until an appeals court dismissed her, finding that the claims against her were beyond the statute of limitations.
All four Trumps denied the AG’s allegations and blamed any discrepancies in the financial documents on accountants and lawyers.
Trump was in court for eight days of the trial — which he was not required to attend, as he would be in a criminal case — and repeatedly attacked the AG and the case, as well as the judge and even Engoron’s chief executive officer.
On the second day of the trial, Engoron issued a limited order barring Trump from speaking publicly about his judicial staff when the 45th president attacked Chief Justice Alison Greenfield on social media.
The judge fined Trump $15,000, finding that he twice violated the gag order.
