Donald Trump said he will likely be forced to sell property to cover a $454 million verdict against him in the New York state civil fraud case if the ruling is not stayed, instead offering to issue a $100 million bond of dollars secured by some of his assets while he appeals.
Trump’s lawyers appeared in a Manhattan court on Wednesday after filing an emergency request to temporarily delay implementation of the “unprecedented and unconstitutional” ruling. Trump would then use the delay to try to keep the verdict pending longer while he appeals to overturn it entirely.
According to the court filing, Trump would secure the proposed $100 million bail with properties including his 40 Wall Street skyscraper, his Seven Springs estate outside New York City, the Trump National Golf Club and Trump Park Avenue, among others.
The dismissal was Trump’s first indication that he did not have enough cash to cover the verdict or post a bond of at least 110% of the judgment to hold it in abeyance during the appeal. Trump also owes $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll after losing a defamation lawsuit last month, creating a major cash crunch as Trump campaigns to return to the White House in the November election.
“Absent a stay of the terms outlined here, the properties would likely have to be sold to raise capital in exigent circumstances, and there would be no way to recover any property sold following a successful appeal and no means to recover the financial outcome resulting losses ” Trump’s lawyers said in an appeals court statement.
State appeals court Judge Anil Singh is expected to soon issue a ruling on Trump’s request, which has drawn opposition from New York Attorney General Letitia James. She argued that granting a temporary delay to Trump and his co-defendants in the case would increase the risk that he would not pay what he owes, even if he loses the appeal.
“There is no merit to Defendants’ contention that a full bond or bond is not necessary because they are willing to post a partial bond of less than one-quarter of the judgment amount,” the Attorney General’s Office wrote in a letter to the court. “Defendants all but concede that Mr. Trump does not have sufficient liquidity to satisfy the judgment; the defendants would need to “raise capital” to do so.”
“These are precisely the circumstances for which a bond or full deposit is required,” the state added.
Judge Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 verdict found that Trump inflated the value of his assets by billions of dollars a year for more than a decade to get better terms on loans, reaping hundreds of millions of dollars in “illegal profits.” . The judge ordered Trump to pay a $355 million fine plus $99 million in pretrial interest.
Engoron also barred Trump and his company from borrowing from any New York-licensed bank for several years, which the former president says further hampers his efforts to secure a bond.
“The exorbitant and punitive sentence amount, coupled with an illegal and unconstitutional blanket ban on lending operations, would make it impossible to secure and post full bail,” Trump’s lawyers said. They added that carrying out the verdict would result in “unnecessary and irreparable harm.”
For every day he doesn’t pay, Trump said he faces $115,000 in accrued interest on the judgment, which is “beyond any permissible or constitutional scope of relief.”
There is precedent for Trump winning an emergency request before a single appeals court judge. The former president managed to stop the fines and gag order imposed by Engoron in October during the trial, although that decision was later overturned by the full panel of judges of the appeals court. In September, when Engoron ordered Trump’s business licenses dissolved, a single appellate judge granted Trump’s emergency request.