Trump Organization hit with maximum fine over years-long tax fraud

Despite the fine itself being relatively small for a huge business, the symbolism of a criminal conviction for an entity so close to the former president is significant.

Trump himself was not on trial and denied any knowledge of his executives evading taxes illegally.

Besides the company, only one executive was charged in the case: the former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg, who pleaded guilty last summer to evading taxes on $1.7m in compensation.

He was sentenced on Tuesday to five months in jail.

Bragg, in office for little more than a year, inherited the Trump Organization case and the investigation into the former president from his predecessor, Cyrus Vance Jr.

James, a Democrat, is asking a court to ban Trump and his three eldest children from running any New York-based company and is seeking to fine them at least $250m. A judge has set an October trial date and appointed a monitor for the company while the case is pending.

Trump faces several other legal challenges as he ramps up his presidential campaign.

Carroll alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in a changing room at the high-end department store Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan in the mid-1990s and has libeled her.

And a special grand jury in Atlanta has investigated whether Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia.