By Christian Wade (The Central Square)
Former President Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond in his civil fraud trial in New York, blocking the seizure of his assets while the case is on appeal.
Last week, a state appeals court gave Trump and his co-defendants 10 days to post bail after reducing the amount he needed to advance the initial $464 million judgment. According to court documents, the bond Trump issued Monday was guaranteed by Knight Specialty Insurance Company, which is part of a consortium run by Los Angeles billionaire Don Hankey.
Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, predicted that the former president and presumptive Republican presidential nominee will be exonerated when the court hears the appeal.
“As promised, President Trump has posted bond,” Habba said in a statement. “He looks forward to vindicating his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict.”
Trump is appealing Superior Court Judge Arthur Engoron’s ruling in a civil fraud lawsuit filed by James in 2022, accusing the judge of “errors of law and/or factual errors, of abusing his discretion, and/or of acting exceeding its jurisdiction.”
Engoron found that Trump, his company and top executives, including sons Donald Trump Jr and Eric Trump, deceived banks and insurers by inflating the value of his family’s wealth on financial statements used to secure the loans. It also ordered Trump and his co-defendants to pay the fines.
The ruling also means that the former president’s children cannot serve as officers or directors of any New York corporation for two years. The judge also fined Trump’s children $4 million each.
Trump is required to post bond in support of the monetary judgment while the court considers his appeal. Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who pursued the fraud charges, had threatened to seize some of Trump’s assets if she didn’t pay the fines. If Trump doesn’t win his appeal, he will have to pay more than $450 million – with interest – from the initial judgment in the fraud case.
The civil suit is one of Trump’s many legal challenges as he campaigns for president. He is also appealing another verdict in New York after a jury awarded writer E. Jean Carroll $83 million in damages from her defamation lawsuit. Last month, a federal judge approved Trump’s $91.6 million bail in that case while the appeal is being heard.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing, claiming the charges are part of a politically motivated “witch hunt” to keep him off the ballot.
Trump took to social media on Monday to criticize the bond payment, calling it “money I can’t use for my campaign. Just what Crooked Joe wanted. WITCH HUNT!”
“The case was a trumped-up ELECTION INTERFERENCE scam, so bad for New York, where businesses flee and violent crime is thriving,” Trump posted on Truth Social. “The Warped Judge, to fit his narrative, valued Mar-a-Lago, in Palm Beach, Florida, at $18,000,000, when it is worth 50 to 100 times that amount. He determined I was guilty before he even saw the case.
Syndicated with permission from The Center Square.
