Donald Trump on Monday posted a $175 million bond in his civil fraud case in New York, halting collection of the more than $454 million he owes and preventing the state from seizing his assets to pay off the debt while he will appeal, according to a court file.
An appeals court in New York had given the former president 10 days to make the money available after a panel of judges last month agreed to reduce the amount needed to stop the clock on enforcement .
The bond Trump is now posting with the court is essentially a placeholder, intended to guarantee payment if the judgment is upheld. If that happens, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will have to pay the entire amount to the state, which will increase by daily interest.
If Trump wins, he won’t have to pay the state anything and will get back the money he has now deposited.
“As promised, President Trump has posted bonds. He looks forward to defending his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict,” said one of Trump’s lawyers, Alina Habba.
Until the appeals court intervened to reduce the bail requirement, New York Attorney General Letitia James was poised to launch efforts to collect the judgment, possibly by seizing some of Trump’s major properties. James, a Democrat, filed the lawsuit on behalf of the state. Her office declined to comment Monday.
The court ruled after Trump’s lawyers complained that it was “a practical impossibility” to get an underwriter to sign a bond for the $454 million, plus interest, he owed.
The company that underwrote the bond is Knight Specialty Insurance, part of the Knight Insurance Group. That company’s chairman, billionaire Don Hankey, told The Associated Press that both cash and bonds were used as collateral for Trump’s bond on appeal.
“This is what we do at Knight Insurance, and we are happy to do this for anyone who needs a bond,” said Hankey, who is best known in the business world for making high-risk, high-interest loans to car buyers. with poor credit history. Hankey told the AP that he has never met or spoken to Trump.
Trump is fighting to overturn a judge’s Feb. 16 ruling that he lied about his wealth while nurturing the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency. The lawsuit focused on how Trump’s assets were valued on financial statements that went to bankers and insurers to obtain loans and deals.
Trump denies any wrongdoing and says the statements actually dragged down his fortunes, contained disclaimers and were not taken at face value by the institutions that lent or insured him.
The state court’s Appellate Division has said it will hear arguments in September. No specific date has been set. If the schedule holds, it will fall in the final weeks of the presidential race.
Under New York law, filing an appeal generally does not stay enforcement of a judgment. But there is an automatic pause – in legalese, a stay – if the person or entity obtains a bond that guarantees payment of what is owed.
Courts sometimes grant exceptions and reduce the amount required for a stay, as in Trump’s case.
Trump’s lawyers had told the appeals court that more than 30 bond companies were unwilling to put up a mix of cash and real estate as collateral for a bond worth more than $454 million. Underwriters insisted on only cash, stock or other liquid assets, the lawyers said.
They said most surety bonds require collateral covering 120% of the amount owed.
Trump recently claimed he had nearly half a billion dollars in cash — along with billions of dollars in real estate and other assets — but said he wanted some cash available for his presidential run.
Recent legal debts have drained a significant portion of Trump’s cash reserves.
In addition to the $175 million he had to raise in the New York case, Trump has posted bail and cash worth more than $97 million to cover the money he owes to writer E. Jean Carroll while he is in higher appeals judgments in a federal civil proceeding. trials. Juries found he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her when she went public with the allegation in 2019. He denies all accusations.
In February, Trump paid $392,638 in legal fees that a judge ordered him to cover for The New York Times and three reporters after he unsuccessfully sued them over a 2018 Pulitzer Prize-winning story about his wealth and tax practices. family.
In March, a British court ordered Trump to pay legal fees of 300,000 pounds ($382,000) to a company he unsuccessfully sued over the so-called Steele dossier that contained salacious allegations about him. Trump said these claims were false.
Trump could eventually generate cash by selling some of the nearly 60% of the stock he owns in his new public social media company, Trump Media & Technology Group — but that would be a longer-term matter. Trump’s stake could be worth billions of dollars, but a lock-up provision prevents insiders like him from selling their shares for six months.