WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has done it again. In New York, in what appears to be his day of reckoning, his legal team has conjured up another rabbit.
The Court of Appeal handed the former president a substantial and unexpected legal victory, reducing by $289m (£229m) the size of the bond he must pay to secure a hefty fine for civil fraud. Trump also extended the deadline for providing assurances.
At dawn on Monday, Trump faced the prospect of either paying the full $454m (£359m) to New York authorities to settle a judgment against him in a civil fraud trial, or posting a bond to guarantee full payment in the event of an incident. His appeal against the ruling failed.
It comes a day after Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump and his sons to pay unprecedented fines as restitution for excessively inflating the value of their business assets in order to successfully attract loans from financial institutions on favorable terms. It was exactly a month ago. This time, Trump appears to be too late.
Last week, his lawyer told the court that despite his “constant efforts,” the former president had been unable to find any company willing to provide him with a sufficient amount of bond. Trump’s lawyers called the challenge “practically impossible.”
As for simply settling the fine, his lawyers claim Trump does not have the $454 million immediately available to pay it. But Trump — eager to protect the notion that he is both wealthy and successful — Pick up on Friday He has “nearly half a billion dollars in cash, which I intend to spend on my presidential campaign.” He said, again in capital letters without evidence, that Ngolon “knew this and wanted to take it away from me, which is why he came up with this shocking figure”.
But the day took a completely unexpected turn when a five-judge Court of Appeal panel partially sided with the former president. The judges ruled that they would require Trump to post a $175 million (£138 million) bond to reduce the immediate financial burden he faced and suspended New York Attorney General Letitia James’ efforts to seize Trump. the power of common assets. Next 10 days.
The result is a major victory for Trump, who is likely to be able to secure financial guarantees that are only about one-third of the burden he previously faced. In response to the news, he said: “I have great respect for the Court of Appeal’s ruling” and promised to secure a reduction in the guarantee amount “very quickly within the next 10 days.”
The ruling is a huge blow to James, who was ready to begin separating the former president from his assets.
She has made it abundantly clear that she is ready to take action, and has repeatedly hinted that she would be willing to occupy 40 Wall Street, the landmark office building in Lower Manhattan that remains the most valuable single property he holds. “I can see it from my office window,” she said in social media posts Last November, and in several interviews since, she said office buildings were firmly on her radar.
“If he doesn’t have the funds to repay the judgment,” James told ABC News In February, “We will then seek enforcement mechanisms in court and we will ask the judge to seize his assets.”
James has already started working.Last week, court records showed authorities in Westchester County, located in New York’s affluent Hudson Valley, Officially informed of the verdict Against Trump. The procedural move could foreshadow eventual efforts to seize the former president’s properties there, including Trump National Golf Course.
There have also been suggestions that she will move quickly to freeze some of Trump’s personal and business bank accounts and use any funds in them to pay off his debts. She may also be able to target some of his highly prized personal possessions, which may include what he calls the “Trump Power One” jet.
All of this is now frozen in aspic. Not only does Trump have 10 days to raise the bond to satisfy the appeals court ruling. He has another week and a half to arrange his assets so that they are in the best legal shape so that he is not unable to provide financial security.
Trump learned the news while in court in New York on a completely different case. He traveled to Manhattan to ask a judge to dismiss a criminal complaint against him over payments he made to adult film actress Stormy Daniels, allegedly to keep her quiet about their affair ahead of the 2016 presidential election. Trump has denied the incident and accused Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of withholding documents the former president claimed could help him.
Daniels’ case will take a back seat to the Court of Appeal’s stay of the fraud case, although the judge rejected any delay and confirmed the trial will begin in April.
Earlier Monday, he took to his “Truth Social” platform to take aim at James and Ngoren’s threats to seize his assets in a civil fraud case. process branding “Election interference” and accused his tormentors of being “radical left-wing lunatics and communists.”
In a surprise move, the appeals court gave him new ammunition, a ruling that will reignite hopes among Trump insiders that the size of his sentence in New York could be reduced as much as the bond on appeal.
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