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A New York appeals court has allowed Donald Trump to pay just $175 million to delay enforcement of a $464 million fraud judgment, a victory for the former US president who had claimed that it would have been “impossible” to get bail for the full amount.
The ruling came as the 30-day grace period granted to Trump by Letitia James, the New York attorney general who prosecuted the fraud case, was about to expire, paving the way for her office to seize the Trump’s money and properties in the United States. .
In an order Monday morning, a five-judge appeals court panel gave Trump 10 days to come up with the new sum. They also agreed to delay enforcement of nonmonetary sanctions imposed as part of the ruling, such as bans on Trump and his eldest children from operating a business in New York and from applying for loans in the state.
But they stipulated that a monitor will remain in place at the Trump Organization in the meantime, as will an “independent director of compliance.”
Trump was in a separate courthouse across the street when the order was posted, attending a hearing on whether to further delay his criminal trial over the alleged cover-up of “hush” payments to a star of cinema for adults. The judge declined to do so, setting jury selection to begin April 15 in what will be the first criminal trial of a former U.S. president.
In a statement on social media soon after the appeals court decision, Trump said he would “post a bond, securities equivalent, or cash.”
Later, he lashed out at President Joe Biden and James in a speech at 40 Wall Street, a property the attorney general had indicated could be seized if he failed to secure bail.
Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for president in the 2024 race, reiterated his claims that the lawsuits against him amount to “election interference” and said James was “the judge’s puppet master” who oversaw the case of fraud.
The appeals court order provided a significant reprieve for Trump, who had rushed to secure bond money after several insurance companies refused to accept his real estate holdings as collateral. He faces a growing pile of judgments and legal costs as he defends four separate criminal cases, as well as civil litigation, while mounting another costly campaign for president.
Trump’s lawyers last week said his team spent “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world” to secure an appellate bond for the full amount, concluding that “very few insurance companies bail will consider a bail of something approaching that magnitude.”
In response, the attorney general’s office suggested that Trump could instead secure a series of smaller bonds that would cumulatively cover the sentence.
The attorney general’s office said in a statement that Trump “is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud.”
“The $464 million judgment – plus interest – against Donald Trump and the other defendants still stands,” he said.
Trump previously managed to secure a separate appeal bond for a nearly $92 million judgment he is appealing, after being found liable for defaming writer E Jean Carroll.
That bond was underwritten by a subsidiary of the Chubb company.
Trump also took the opportunity during his remarks on 40 Wall Street to discuss his social media company, which begins trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq market, saying it “is hot as a gun and doing great.”