On Monday, a state appeals court agreed to hold off collection of the former president's more than $454 million civil fraud judgment if he puts up $175 million within 10 days. If he does, it will stop the clock on collection and prevent the state from seizing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee's assets while he appeals.

Greg Germain, a law professor at Syracuse University in New York, said that President Trump may have a strong case to challenge Judge Arthur Engoron's ruling in February that he must pay $455 million in his civil fraud case.

"I think the $175 million reduction ... shows that the appellate division has serious concerns about the validity of Judge Engoron's decision," Mr. Germain told Newsweek.

While he believes the judgment was "seriously flawed," the professor said that President Trump will have a difficult time overturning the judge's "findings that his financial statement was grossly overstated."

"The standard for the appeals court to review factual findings is 'clearly erroneous,' which means that there was no evidence in the record to support the judge's findings. Engoron was very careful to cite to the record for his factual findings, which were very solid," Mr. Germain said.

But the judge, he added, "made no attempt to determine what portion of the profit was solely due to the financial statement as opposed to other factors" before handing down his ruling.

The former president "has some strong legal arguments to make on appeal," Mr. Germain added. "Unfortunately for him, I think he's so focused on denying that he did anything wrong that the strong legal arguments may be lost in his unwinnable arguments on the facts."