Former President Donald Trump said Tuesday the high-dollar bond he needs to stiff-arm a business fraud judgment against him could force him to offload his properties at “fire sale” prices.
Mr. Trump raised the prospect in a furious rant against New York Attorney General Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron as he stares at a Monday deadline to cobble together the $464 million bond he needs to avoid collection on the judgment during his appeal.
“Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before. I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense?” Mr. Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Ms. James, a Democrat, successfully argued in court that Mr. Trump and his real estate company submitted fraudulent documents to get better business loan terms and insurance.
Judge Engoron ordered the former president to pay nearly $355 million. The amount gains interest while it goes unpaid.
On Monday, Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked the courts to stay with the judgment while they appealed. Attorneys said they approached 30 surety companies through four brokers and found that obtaining the money was “a practical impossibility.”
“A bond requirement of this enormous magnitude — effectively requiring cash reserves approaching $1 billion is unprecedented for a private company,” the attorneys wrote. “Even when it comes to publicly traded companies, courts routinely waive or reduce the bond amount.”
Ms. James isn’t inclined to show mercy. She is expected to ask the courts for permission to seize assets to secure the judgment, including Mr. Trump’s bank accounts or real estate.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” Ms. James said in a Feb. 20 interview with ABC News. “We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers. And yes, I look at [Trump-owned] 40 Wall Street every day.”
Mr. Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee for president. He says the civil case is part of a Democratic plot to thwart his campaign.
“A bond of the size set by the Democrat Club-controlled Judge, in Corrupt, Racist Letitia James’ unlawful Witch Hunt, is unConstitutional, un-American, unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine,” Mr. Trump wrote on social media. “The Bonding Companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before, nor do they have the ability to post such a bond, even if they wanted to.”
Mr. Trump’s lawyer-turned-accuser, Michael Cohen, says his old boss is “really angry” about the situation.
“There is a situation that is completely out of control, and we know that it is out of his control,” Mr. Cohen told CNN. “Thirty different lenders said, ‘Hey, thank you, but no thank, we just can’t do it.’ And he’s not wrong about that, to post a $500 million bond is not easy to do no matter who you do.”
Mr. Cohen said other billionaires could probably write the check, and said Mr. Trump in the past suggested he had stores of cash that could approach the amount.
Mr. Cohen weighed in on Mr. Trump’s psyche after serving for years as the ex-president’s fixer. He turned on Mr. Trump in 2018 and testified to Congress that Mr. Trump would routinely manipulate the values of his properties to gain favorable terms.
The testimony fueled Ms. James’s investigation into the Trump Organization.
Mr. Trump says Mr. Cohen has been known to lie and cannot be trusted. The lawyer spent over a year in prison after pleading guilty to campaign finance violations, tax fraud and bank fraud.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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