Judge halts dissolution of Trump businesses, refuses to stop N.Y. trial

Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A New York appeals judge has temporarily halted the dissolution of former President Donald Trump's businesses but refused to stop his civil fraud trial, which wrapped up its first week of testimony Friday.

Associate Justice Peter Moulton ruled that Trump's New York trial will continue Tuesday. Trump's lawyers filed a motion seeking the halt while he appeals a different ruling last week that found him liable for fraud, Forbes reported.

They said the delay in the trial would "avoid an avalanche of compounding errors" in the case, while New York Attorney General Letitia James' office said that doing so "would severely undermine the fair and orderly administration of justice."

"And tellingly, they waited until after Mr. Trump decided to stop attending the trial," the attorney general's office said in response to Trump's filing.

A New York judge canceled all business licenses for Trump on Sept. 26, a process temporarily halted by Friday's ruling while an appeals court considers the case.

"Terminating non-party business licenses without jurisdiction, without process, without statutory authority, without trial, and without reason renders impossible the lawful operation of multiple businesses and threatens termination of hundreds of New York employees without any jurisdiction or due process," Trump's lawyers wrote in a filing seeking the halt of the dissolution.

Meanwhile, former Trump Organization controller Jeffrey McConney wrapped up his two days of testimony Friday. He said former CFO Allen Weisselberg asked him to process a payroll check for the latter's wife even though she wasn't employed by the company. McConney testified that Weisselberg told him it was so his wife could qualify for Social Security benefits, NBC News reported.

McConney added that he didn't realize doing so was illegal, but prosecutor Andrew Amer showed him testimony he gave in a 2022 tax fraud trial in which he acknowledged it was unlawful.

"You engaged in this illegal conduct because Mr. Weisselberg was your boss and if you refused his requests, you would lose your job," Amer asked?

McConney responded, "Yes."

McConney was the first co-defendant in the case to give testimony, which he began Thursday.

He also said Friday that he valued Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla., in excess of $500 million with the idea that it could be sold for private residences despite an agreement the former president made with the National Trust for Historic Preservation in 2002 saying it could only be used as a club.

McConney initially said he wasn't aware of that 2002 agreement, but later testified he did know of it, ABC News reported.