Maeve Bidonde, Staff Writer
Last Monday, March 25, a New York appeals court paused Donald Trump’s Civil Fraud bond of $454M and reduced it to $175M. The appeals court came to this decision on the same day New York Attorney General Letitia James began to seize Trump’s real estate assets. This judgment now prevents James from seizing any of the assets Trump owns.
During the Civil Fraud Trial, Trump’s attorneys asked for the amount he would have to pay to be a bond because the thirty companies Trump asked for money from denied him. Their argument was that it was impossible for Trump to pay that kind of money. According to NBC, Trump was in rage about how he would have to pay the money to satisfy the ruling while he appealed it.
Due to the size of the judgment, companies insisted Trump provide proof of cash reserves up to a billion dollars. Neither Trump nor his companies can produce that kind of money on hand. The panel of judges dealing with his appeal kept the other parts of the judgment, including banning him from operating as the head of a company in New York for three years. Trump also wanted to make sure he had enough money to funnel into his re-election bid for the Presidency in 2024.
According to AP News, Trump insists he’s worth several billion dollars but it’s tied to real estate assets and the underwriters were only willing to accept cash or a cash equivalent. He doesn’t want to sell his properties and his lawyers agree. “In all, Trump has more than $543 million in personal legal liabilities from three civil court judgments in the past year. Bonding requirements could add at least $100 million to that total,” as said in AP News. Trump’s team was able to get a say and reduce in bond, but this is one small victory in comparison to his back-to-back defeats relating to other cases. With things underway, Trump can return to his priorities for his re-election campaign. However, it remains unclear if these legal debts will affect it in any way.
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