- In the past week, Donald Trump has fought in four courts to block Friday’s fine.
- Protecting his liquor licenses at the golf resort may be one of the reasons he is fighting the sentence so hard.
- The sentence would allow New Jersey officials to resume efforts last year to revoke his licenses in the state.
Over the past week, President-elect Donald Trump’s lawyers have been fighting in four courts to wipe out Friday’s money sentencing date — and keeping the liquor licenses at his three New Jersey golf courses could be a reason for this effort.
Little will change for Trump, in practice, if his sentencing proceeds in a Manhattan courtroom despite an 11th-hour US Supreme Court challenge filed by his lawyers. New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan has said he is inclined to hand down a zero sentence. Trump will not need to attend in person.
But by the time he becomes a convicted felon, Trump will have received what Jersey liquor officials consider a final judgment of conviction.
That ruling would allow the state Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control to resume efforts last year to revoke two of its licenses, a division spokesman told Business Insider on Wednesday.
ABC began these efforts shortly after Trump’s conviction on May 30 by pulling the liquor licenses for two of Trump’s Jersey clubs — the Trump National Golf Club in Colts Neck and the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster.
Pending a fine originally set for July 11, 2024, the ABC granted the two clubs interim permission to continue selling and serving alcohol and set a date of July 19, 2024, for a liquor license revocation hearing in Trenton.
As Trump has continued to win delays in sentencing over the past half year, ABC, run by the Jersey Attorney General’s office, has kept those revocation hearing plans on hold.
Temporary licenses at the Colts Neck and Bedminster clubs have remained in effect, “allowing the establishments to continue serving alcohol pending a hearing on renewals,” the BI spokesman said Wednesday.
Trump’s third Jersey club is Trump National Golf Club, Philadelphia, which is 45 minutes from that city, in Pine Hill. Last June, the Borough of Pine Hill renewed the club’s license for one year, the ABC spokesman said. Pine Hill officials did not immediately respond when asked Wednesday about their plans regarding that license.
All three licenses are in the name of Donald Trump Jr., not his father, but ABC said in the summer that the former president was the sole financial beneficiary of those licenses, a finding that officials continued to stand by Wednesday.
“There has been no change in ABC’s review showing that the president-elect maintains a direct beneficial interest in the three liquor licenses by receiving income and profits from them as the sole beneficiary of the Donald J. Trump.” the spokesman said.
State law requires revocation if anyone who holds or is the primary beneficiary of a liquor license commits a crime of moral turpitude.
“In New Jersey, felony convictions are universally regarded as crimes of moral turpitude,” said attorney Peter M. Rhodes, a partner at the Haddonfield law firm Cahill Wilinski Rhodes & Joyce.
“Obviously, it’s a pretty unusual circumstance when a president-elect is a felon,” added Rhodes, whose firm has served as counsel to the New Jersey Licensed Liquor Association for 50 years.
Three Jersey golf club licenses will expire on June 30. Once Trump’s criminal status is finalized at sentencing, ABC can immediately schedule a hearing, in which Trump’s side will have the burden of proving that he remains eligible to benefit from the licenses.
A spokesman for the Trump Organization did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
What about his licenses in other states?
Trump golf resorts in other states also have liquor licenses, but officials in those states have not signaled they are at risk as a result of the president-elect’s felony conviction.
Regulators with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, home of the Trump National Golf Club outside Los Angeles, “are not aware that he has any direct or indirect beneficial interest in any ABC license,” a spokesman for the president said. chosen on Wednesday.
A spokesman for the State Liquor Authority in New York, where Trump has two golf courses, issued a similar response. Officials in Florida, where Trump has three courses, and North Carolina, where he has one, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
