China’s growing influence in Michigan has brewed into a “huge issue of concern” for voters in the key battleground state, according to a Trump-backed House candidate sounding the alarm on “failed Democratic” policies in the Great Lakes State. 

“This is a huge issue of concern both from national security and economic security standpoint,” Republican House candidate to represent Michigan’s Tom Barrett told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview this week. “Here in Michigan, the Democrats are giving nearly $200 million of state tax money to a Chinese-backed, Communist Party affiliated company that’s going to come to Michigan to build a battery plant. They’ve already purchased a bunch of rural farmland to go out and build a Chinese Communist Party-backed battery plant in Michigan, not far from a military installation where I trained for countless hours during my career in the Army.”

Barrett is an Army veteran who previously served in Michigan’s state House and state Senate before launching his race to represent the 7th District in the U.S. House. Barrett earned Trump’s “complete and total endorsement” for the House seat earlier this year, and spoke to Fox News Digital about the top issues he’s highlighting from the campaign trail, including spiraling inflation, border policies, fentanyl overdose deaths, as well as China’s growing influence in the state. 

“While families are struggling in Michigan to make ends meet and just buy groceries, pay for their home heating costs, our state government, backed by my opponent, is sending nearly $200 million of their state tax money to a Chinese communist company just so they can come here and spy on us. This is rotten to the core,” Barrett said. 

MICHIGAN REPUBLICANS CONTINUE TO SPAR WITH DEMS OVER DEAL WITH CHINESE EV COMPANY IN KEY HOUSE RACE

In 2022, Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Gotion, a China-based manufacturer, would construct a $2.4 billion electric vehicle battery plant in a rural area of the state near Big Rapids. The announcement was met with outrage from residents, including local leaders working to reverse a water supply agreement that would have crippled the plant’s construction. Gotion sued the township, Green Charter, and notched a legal victory last month when a federal judge upheld a preliminary injunction allowing construction to continue. 

Barrett’s competitor this cycle, Curtis Hertel, worked as Whitmer’s director of legislative affairs from 2015 to 2023, before serving in the state Senate. 

“My opponent signed a nondisclosure agreement to negotiate sending this money to this Chinese company while he was a member of the state Senate and then later went to work as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s chief lobbyist. He’s listed in the Foreign Agents Registries Act filings with having secret conversations with this Chinese company about maneuvering through the legislature to get their funding approved,” Barrett said of his competitor and Democrats in the state. 

Hertell’s campaign and Whitmer’s office did not respond to Fox News Digital’s request for contact. 

Barrett pointed to remarks from former Obama administration CIA director Leon Panetta, who warned earlier this year that China would likely use the battery plant for espionage purposes. 

“I don’t think there’s any question that they’re going to take advantage of that situation,” Panetta warned in January when asked about the plant during a House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party hearing. “And I think we have to be very vigilant about what the hell is going on. That’s just the way they operate. They’ll establish a manufacturing unit, they’ll establish whatever they can, and then they will use that for their own intelligence purposes. They will use that for their own economic purposes.”

Barrett said the deal is not only a national security threat, but also risks American jobs. 

MICHIGAN REPUBLICAN TOM BARRETT LEAPS BACK INTO CRUCIAL HOUSE RACE AFTER SLOTKIN EXIT

“It is all in the pursuit of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s electric vehicle mandate that will systematically replace and eliminate existing manufacturing jobs in Michigan that make up the very fabric of our economy here. So we have a Chinese company threatening with national security concerns to replace American jobs in traditional manufacturing with electric vehicle mandates that are borne by the Biden administration. So this has so many problems. It’s an absolutely horrible deal,” he said. 

“Michiganders are stepping up. They’re aware of this. It is terribly unpopular here. And we need to take this fight to the ballot box to make sure that we don’t let this go forward.”

Trump joined farmers during a panel earlier this week in another battleground state, Pennsylvania, where they discussed China’s recent purchases of American farmland and again enforcing a trade deal against China that benefits American farmers. 

“My first call, I’m going to call up President Xi. I’m going to say, ‘You have to honor the deal you made. We made a deal. You’d buy $50 billion worth of American farm product.’ And I guarantee you he will buy it. 100% he will buy it,” Trump said Monday during a campaign event in Smithton, Pennsylvania. 

SENATE GOP UNLEASHES CAMPAIGN BLASTING DEM CANDIDATE FOR HUSH AGREEMENT INVOLVING CCP-TIED COMPANY

Trump struck a trade deal with China in 2020 that included Beijing’s commitment to halt intellectual property theft, refrain from currency manipulation, cooperate in financial services and purchase an additional $200 billion of U.S. products over two years, including up to $50 billion of U.S. agriculture. 

“Second thing I’m going to do is, I’m going to say you have to give the death penalty to your fentanyl dealers who are sending fentanyl. You know, in China, they give the death penalty. They don’t have a drug problem because they give the death penalty,” Trump said. 

Fentanyl and overdose deaths are again one of the top concerns for Americans this election cycle, with Trump tying the fatal drug to the influx of illegal immigrants who have poured over the southern border under the Biden-Harris administration. 

Barrett said his area and district are among the communities across the nation that have been rocked by the influx of the synthetic opioid from across the border. 

TRUMP AND VANCE TO HOLD FIRST RALLY IN MICHIGAN

“Every single community in America, in every town, not just in the district where I’m running, but every town in America has been touched and affected and devastated by the outcomes of illegal immigration and lax border policies that have flooded every community with fentanyl. And now the leading cause of death of Americans my age is fentanyl overdose. It’s a crippling and devastating tragedy. And we have to fix the problem,” he said. 

“We have to secure our border with more structures. We have to reinstate the remain in Mexico policy. We can’t allow the exploitation of asylum claims to overwhelm our social welfare system, to overwhelm our border security. We need to put Border Patrol agents on the border instead of processing asylum claims all day as they’re doing right now. And we need to get back to two policies that deter illegal border crossing,” he continued. 

Barrett is an Army veteran who signed his contract over the Christmas break of his senior year in high school. He spent 22 years in the Army, serving in the Iraq War, Guantanamo Bay, Kuwait, and at the DMZ separating North and South Korea. 

Barrett pointed to his military career amid his calls to secure the border. 

EARLY VOTING BEGINS IN ILLINOIS, NORTH DAKOTA, FLORIDA AND MICHIGAN

“I spent a year of my life deployed during Operation Enduring Freedom to Guantanomo Bay, Cuba, where there were terrorists that we were securing in that facility. And they told us straight to our face, that they wanted to come to America and kill Americans. I believe them. We need to keep them out of our country. We’ve had hundreds on the terror watch list that we already know have crossed into this country just during this administration. We need to remove them and we need to make sure that we don’t allow any further terrorists into our country,” he said. 

Barrett is in the lead in his race against Hertell, but underscored he’s not taking anything for granted while 

“I think President Trump is very well poised to win Michigan. We know this is going to be a very close race and absolutely nothing we can take for granted. The seventh Congressional District in Michigan, where I’m running, is also highly competitive. And we also have a very competitive United States Senate race in Michigan,” he said. 

“This really is going to shape the direction of our country. And we can go down the same failed path we’ve been on already with the high cost of living and groceries that are unaffordable for families, and mortgage rates that don’t allow a young couple to begin their own family. Or we can turn the corner. Secure our border. Get our costs of living under control, get crime under control, put our foreign adversaries back in check where they belong, and really forge a new path for America.”

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Vice President Harris’ controversial filibuster comment isn’t out of line with a group of vulnerable Democrat senators vying to keep their seats in the upper chamber who are also willing to do away with the legislative filibuster.

In fact, Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, Bob Casey, D-Pa., Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., all voted to change the rules in 2022 to allow a bill that would loosen federal voting requirements to be passed by a simple majority, which Democrats had in the Senate.

“I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe,” Harris, a former senator, told Wisconsin Public Radio this week, referencing changing Senate rules to codify the precedent set in Roe v. Wade into law and protect the ability to get an abortion federally.

SENATE PASSES FUNDING BILL WITHOUT SAVE ACT, AVOIDING POTENTIAL SHUTDOWN

Immediately afterward, Sen. Joe Manchin, I-W.Va., said he would not endorse her for president: “I’m not endorsing her,” he told Fox News. 

The legislative filibuster requires 60 votes to end debate on a bill and advance to a final vote. If a measure is unable to meet this threshold on a cloture vote, it cannot move forward for final passage consideration. 

In 2022, both moderate Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, I-Ariz., and Manchin bucked Democrats to join Republicans in preventing the rule change that would have allowed Democrats to pass the voting requirements bill with the party’s razor-thin majority. The senators were both Democrats at the time but subsequently left the party to become independents. They each later announced they wouldn’t seek re-election. 

Ahead of the filibuster standoff, Brown told one outlet in 2020, “We’ve got to eliminate the filibuster.” 

Rosen remarked to another in 2021 that she supported suspending the filibuster’s rules “in the case of protecting democracy,” such as passing the voting requirements bill. 

GOP SENATORS EYE COMPREHENSIVE CHINA STRATEGY TO CURB CCP INFLUENCE

Also in 2021, Casey said the threshold was “an arcane Senate procedure” and added, “If the choice comes down to the filibuster or democracy, I know which side I’m on.”

Tester told MSNBC during the same summer that if the filibuster continued being “weaponized,” he would be left with few choices.

Baldwin backed scrapping the legislative filibuster as far back as 2013, co-sponsoring a bill to do so at the time and reinstitute a “talking filibuster.” Under this change, the 60-vote threshold or legislative filibuster would be eliminated and those who want to filibuster a measure would be required to speak on the chamber floor. If and when those lawmakers stop speaking, a final vote by simple majority would take place. 

A spokesperson told Fox News Digital earlier in the year that “Senator Tester does not support ending the filibuster.”

But Tester told Fox News Digital on Wednesday, “Talking filibuster, that’s what I want, period.”

The talking filibuster would effectively eliminate the current legislative filibuster. 

TOP SECRET SERVICE AGENT IN PITTSBURGH SAYS HE WAS KEPT IN DARK ON ‘CREDIBLE’ THREAT AHEAD OF BUTLER RALLY

Casey also reiterated his interest in voting on the 60-vote rule to Fox News Digital in the spring. 

Baldwin on Wednesday told Fox News Digital she agreed with Harris’ recent comment and still backs returning to the talking filibuster.

In response to their interest in a talking filibuster, Manchin told Fox News Digital, “There’s only one filibuster, 60-vote threshold.”

Both Brown and Rosen ignored questions about whether they agreed with Harris’ comment from Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

Representatives for Casey, Rosen and Brown did not respond to questions from Fox News Digital regarding whether they agreed with Harris or if their positions had changed.

JOE MANCHIN SAYS HE WON’T ENDORSE HARRIS OVER SUPPORT FOR ELIMINATING FILIBUSTER

Tester is considered the most vulnerable Democrat seeking re-election as top political handicappers predict a Republican win and polls show the Montana senator losing traction.

The Ohio race is considered a toss-up by the Cook Political Report as Brown competes to keep his seat. 

Baldwin, Casey and Rosen’s races in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Nevada are rated “Lean Democrat.” 

In 2021, voters were somewhat divided on the filibuster and many were unsure what they thought about it. According to an April 2021 Fox News Poll, 27% supported eliminating the filibuster while 29% opposed doing so. However, 39% didn’t have an opinion at all. 

In the aftermath of the dispute over Senate rules in early 2022, even fewer voters reported having an opinion. In a July 2022 Fox News Poll, those who supported eliminating the filibuster and those who opposed it were tied at 26% each, while nearly half, at 47%, said they didn’t have an opinion.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

In a legislative session marked by a surge in activity, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has more than 800 bills on his docket to either sign into law or veto by next week. The sheer amount of potential new legislation is further evidence of the Golden State government’s penchant for a heavy touch when it comes to governance, according to critics.

As California remains the most regulated state in the country, state lawmakers introduced over 4,400 bills for 2023-2024, eclipsing the 4,100 proposed in the 2020-2021 term, longtime Capitol lobbyist Chris Micheli noted.

California public policy expert Lance Christensen warned that many of the bills introduced serve as “vanity projects” for legislators. And with the governor signing the majority, the state’s lawbook is expanding into a labyrinth of complexity that poses significant challenges for citizens and small businesses, driving up compliance costs.

NEWSOM VETOES BIPARTISAN ACCOUNTABILITY LEGISLATION AIMED AT STATE SPENDING ON HOMELESSNESS CRISIS

“Who has the capacity to read literally millions of pages worth of state law, let alone the millions of pages of regulations … and the answer is zero,” Christensen told Fox News Digital. “Nobody ever reads all this stuff. Very few people really understand how complex it is, and because of that, most people are breaking the law every single day, and they have no idea.

“How can you manage that process without somebody else interpreting that for you? So, that increases the cost of knowledge, but it also increases the cost of compliance.”

Already, Newsom has signed a package of public safety bills aimed at reducing organized retail theft. He’s also vetoed a number of progressive bills, including several that would have expanded aid to illegal immigrants through housing loans and permitted employment through the University of California (UC) system and a reparations package for Black residents.

Promising to tackle the mental health crisis among young people, the blue state governor also signed a historic bill restricting cellphones in schools.

NEWSOM VETOES BILL THAT WOULD LET NONCITIZEN STUDENTS WORK AT STATE’S PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES

Newsom often vetoes bills if they appear redundant or the cost would further burden the state’s budget shortfall, according to a CalMatters analysis. Last year, Newsom vetoed 156 bills and signed 890, reflecting a veto rate of about 15%, similar to the previous year. His veto rate in 2021 was under 8%.

From start to finish, the creation of a bill in California costs roughly $30,000, which does not include more complex legislation that takes longer to draft.

Because of this, Christensen said, “money (is) being sucked out of the economy for people just simply to understand — not even comply with — but just simply understand what the legislation is.”

NEWSOM’S DEEPFAKE ELECTION LAWS ARE ALREADY BEING CHALLENGED IN FEDERAL COURT

Newsom has signed dozens of packages meant to fast-track certain initiatives, like expanding housing development and environmental policies. 

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“The governor has repeatedly taken action to streamline government,” Brandon Richards, deputy director of Newsom’s rapid response team, told Fox News Digital. “He is intentional with every measure he signs into law — focusing on solving problems and supporting Californians — while recognizing that not every problem warrants a new law.”

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris announced new executive actions Thursday aimed at reducing gun violence, and capped off the afternoon with a press conference touting all the work the Biden-Harris administration has done on the issue, while slamming Republicans for their response to it.

“Guns are the number one – hard to believe – they’re the number one killer of children in America. More than any other cause – accidents – more than any other cause. It’s almost unbelievable – it’s sick,” Biden said from the White House’s East Room on Thursday. “Last year, after another school shooting, my predecessor said – like other members of Congress say – ‘Just get over it.’ I’m going to be very blunt, Secretary Vance from Ohio has called these shootings ‘facts of life.’ Who the hell do these people think they are?”

In addition to attacking Republicans, Biden also spent time during Thursday’s press conference touting the work his administration has done to reduce violent crime overall. 

“A year before we came to the presidency, we saw the biggest increase in murder rates on record. Last year we saw the largest decrease in murder rates nationwide,” Biden said. “In the first half of 2024, in large cities across the country, the homicide rate dropped another 17%. Last year we also saw the lowest rates of all violent crime in more than 50 years.”

WHITE HOUSE GRILLED ON HARRIS’ GUN OWNERSHIP, MANDATORY GUN BUYBACKS

The Thursday press conference came the same week as the one-year anniversary of Biden’s first-of-its-kind Office of Gun Violence Prevention, which Biden slammed Republicans for trying to “defund.” Prior to the Thursday afternoon press conference, the White House unveiled Biden’s plan to take new executive actions aimed at combating “emerging” firearms threats, such as unserialized “ghost guns,” which can be made via a 3-D printer, and improving the manner in which schools prepare for incidents involving an active shooter.

Biden said his new actions would establish a task force that will address the issue of 3-D printed “ghost guns” and machine-gun conversion devices, which are firearm components that can turn a semi-automatic weapon into a fully automatic one. Biden added that the task force will publish a “risk assessment” report within 90 days that will lay out “a strategy to address these emerging firearms threats.” 

In addition, Biden is directing the members of his Cabinet to share a report within 110 days that outlines “resources and information for schools to improve active shooter drills, minimize this harm, create age appropriate content and communicate with parents.”

“The lack of guidance today on how to prepare students while minimizing the trauma of active shooter drills is unacceptable,” Biden argued.

HARRIS CAMPAIGN WON’T GIVE DETAILS ON TYPE OF GUN SHE OWNS, LAST TIME SHE WENT TO RANGE

KAMALA HARRIS ONCE SAID POLICE COULD PAY SURPRISE VISITS TO LEGAL GUN OWNERS’ HOMES FOR SAFE STORAGE CHECKS

Meanwhile, Vice President Harris spoke at the Thursday event and reiterated her support for a nationwide assault weapons ban. Harris also called for the implementation of universal background checks, safe storage laws, red-flag laws and more mental health counselors in schools.

Both Harris and Biden also slammed the gun lobby and gun manufacturers as well, arguing they need to be held liable in certain instances of gun violence.

“If [Republicans] got their way, criminals could traffic guns and commit crimes,” Biden said Thursday. “There’s an amendment to defund the office of gun violence prevention. Bless me Father, as we say in my church. They attack the FBI and want to abolish the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives … Folks, you can’t be pro-law enforcement and be anti-FBI and ATF.”

HARRIS-LED OFFICE, ATF STONEWALLING PROBE INTO ‘COLLUSION’ WITH ANTI-GUN GROUP LAWSUIT: HOUSE OVERSIGHT CHAIR

Gun control critics, meanwhile, argue that Biden’s executive orders were an effort to distract from his administration’s poor record when it comes to reducing crime in major metropolitan cities. 

“This Executive Order is just one more attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to deflect attention from their soft-on-crime policies that have emboldened criminals in our country,” said Randy Kozuch, Executive Director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action. 

“The orders are notably heavy on election-year rhetoric and light on substance,” Kozuch continued. “It’s no secret that Americans don’t feel safe under the Biden-Harris Administration, as evidenced by the record number of firearms being purchased for the defense of self and family.” 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to a U.S. Army ammunition plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania on Sunday has come under fire from some Republicans including Speaker Mike Johnson for being partisan.

Johnson wrote in a letter to Zelenskyy, “The tour was clearly a partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats…”

ZELENSKYY QUESTIONS CHINA’S ‘TRUE INTEREST’ BEHIND PLAN TO END RUSSIA’S WAR

The visit was at the request of Ukraine to thank the American workers who have helped boost ammunition production for Ukraine to defend against Russia, White House and Pentagon officials told Fox News.

Elected officials who attended the event were all Democrats, but that is because it is standard procedure to invite House and Senate members who represent the district where the visit is located.

JOHNSON DEMANDS ZELENSKYY FIRE UKRAINE’S AMBASSADOR TO US AMID FALLOUT FROM PENNSYLVANIA TRIP

In this case, all elected officials happened to be Democrats due to what is called the “geographical jurisdiction,” a defense official told Fox News.

Zelenskyy has met exclusively with Republicans in past trips due to this same reason of who happens to be in elected office in the districts he is visiting.

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY’S VANCE CRITICISMS COULD COME BACK TO HAUNT HIM, REPUBLICANS WARN

Zelenskyy visited Utah in July of this year to meet with Utah’s Republican Gov. Spencer Cox and met with Utah’s all-Republican Congressional delegation.

Senator Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) the Senate Armed Services Committee’s top Republican said in a statement, “If President Zelenskyy came to Mississippi, he would be accompanied by Republican officials because that’s who the people in their wisdom elected.”

The U.S. Army helped arrange the visit, White House press secretary KJP told Jacqui Heinrich in today’s briefing

Jacqui Heinrich questioned KJP about this in the WH briefing earlier this afternoon-

Karine Jean-Pierre: “This is something that Ukrainians asked for. They did this a couple months ago in Utah, in Utah, with a Republican governor and Republican, elected officials were there as well. We didn’t hear any type of investigation request when we went to a Republican state. We didn’t.”

A Wisconsin district attorney is set to investigate a mayor for removing an official voting drop box.

Mayor Doug Diny of Wausau recently made a spectacle of removing a voter drop box from outside City Hall.

He posted a photo of himself on social media on Sunday, showing him carting away the metal ballot receptacle while dressed in a hard hat and gloves.

WISCONSIN REPUBLICAN DEMANDS PROBE AFTER MADISON SENDS OUT OVER 2,000 DUPLICATE ABSENTEE BALLOTS

County Clerk Kaitlyn Bernarde reported Diny to Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon, who is now pursuing an investigation via the state’s Department of Justice.

The voting drop box was empty and not in use when it was removed, according to local reports.

“This is no different than the maintenance guy moving it out there,” Diny said Wednesday. “I’m a member of [the] staff. There’s nothing nefarious going on here. I’m hoping for a good result.”

WISCONSIN SUPREME COURT NEW LIBERAL MAJORITY REVERSES RULING THAT BANNED MOST BALLOT DROP BOXES IN SWING STATE

Democrat Gov. Tony Evers called the drop box removal wrong and insisted that it be reinstated outside City Hall. 

“Drop box voting is safe, secure, and legal,” Evers said on social media. “As elected officials, we should be working to make it easier—not harder—for every eligible Wisconsinite to cast their ballot. That’s democracy.”

The state’s Supreme Court ruled in July 2022 that absentee drop boxes – such as those used in the 2020 presidential election – are not authorized under state statutes.

The court ruled that the Wisconsin Elections Commission guidance encouraging their use was unlawful, but the ruling was overturned by the court’s new liberal majority in July 2024.

The move, which sparked a protest in the city Tuesday night and anger among drop box advocates, is the latest example in swing state Wisconsin of the fight over whether communities will allow absentee ballot drop boxes.

More than 60 towns, villages and cities in nine counties have opted out of using absentee ballot drop boxes for the presidential election in November, according to a tally by the group All Voting is Local. Drop boxes are being embraced in heavily Democrat cities, including Milwaukee and Madison. Wisconsin has a total of 72 counties.

Fox News Digital’s Danielle Wallace and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

Judges on a New York appeals court were open-minded and receptive to the possibility of reversing or reducing the $454 million civil fraud judgment in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit against former President Trump. 

Trump appealed the civil fraud ruling that demanded he pay more than $450 million. The former president’s attorneys called New York Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling “draconian, unlawful, and unconstitutional.” 

 TRUMP’S $454M JUDGMENT BOND SLASHED BY MORE THAN HALF IN APPEALS COURT RULING

Engoron ruled that Trump and other defendants were liable for persistent and repeated fraud, falsifying business records, issuing false financial statements, conspiracy to falsify false financial statements, insurance fraud and conspiracy to commit insurance fraud. 

A five-judge panel on a New York appeals court in Manhattan Thursday heard oral arguments on the appeal. 

The former president did not attend oral arguments Thursday but was instead represented by his legal team.

Trump attorney D. John Sauer argued that James’ lawsuit stretched New York consumer protection laws and said there were “no victims” and “no complaints” of Trump’s business from lenders and insurers. 

Sauer said the cause “involves a clear cut violation of the statute of limitations,” pointing to transactions used in the non-jury civil fraud trial that dated back more than a decade. 

TRUMP VOWS TO FIGHT NEW YORK AG CASE ‘ALL THE WAY UP TO THE US SUPREME COURT,’ AS DEADLINE TO POST $454M LOOMS

Sauer said that if the verdict is not overturned, “people can’t do business in real estate” without fear. 

The Appellate Division typically rules about a month after arguments are complete, meaning a final decision could come before Election Day on Nov. 5. 

Judge Peter H. Moulton questioned if James’ lawsuit turned into “something it was not meant to do.” 

Moulton said the “immense penalty in this case is troubling.”

But the state argued that there is evidence to support the verdict. 

TRUMP BARRED FROM OPERATING BUSINESS, ORDERED TO PAY OVER $350 MILLION IN NY CIVIL FRAUD CASE

In September 2023, before the non-jury trial began, Engoron ruled that Trump and the Trump Organization had committed fraud while building his real estate empire by deceiving banks, insurers and others by overvaluing his assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork used in making deals and securing financing.

Trump was hit with an initial penalty of $355 million. That sum is quickly increasing via interest accruals of approximately $112,000 a day until paid in full, now sitting around $470 million.

Trump, the 2024 presumptive GOP presidential nominee, and his legal team had appealed and requested a stay on his $454 million civil fraud judgment. Trump’s legal team said the initial requested bond was “unprecedented for a private company,” and said to post it in the judgment’s full amount was a “practical impossibility.” 

An appeals court slashed former President Trump’s bond payment in March, and the former president paid $175 million. 

Trump has vowed to fight the case “all the way up to the U.S. Supreme Court if necessary.” 

Trump and his family denied any wrongdoing, with the former president saying his assets had been undervalued. Trump’s legal team insisted that his financial statements had disclaimers, and made it clear to banks that they should conduct their own assessments.

Throughout the trial, Trump attorneys brought witnesses, including former Deutsche Bank top executives, who testified the banks sought additional business from Trump, whom they viewed as a “whale of a client.”

Trump’s defense also brought in expert witnesses, including New York University accounting professor Eli Bartov, who reviewed the Trump financial statements at issue in the case and said he found no evidence of accounting fraud.

Bartov testified last month that Trump’s financial statements did not violate accounting principles, and he suggested that anything problematic – like a huge year-to-year leap in the estimated value of his Trump Tower penthouse – was simply an error.

“My main finding is that there is no evidence whatsoever of any accounting fraud,” Bartov testified. Trump’s financial statements, he said, “were not materially misstated.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.