The campaign of former President Donald Trump railed against claims that he is struggling to pay his $464 million bond in his New York civil fraud case.
A report from CNN’s Kaitlan Collins on Tuesday night said Mr. Trump was in “panic mode” seeking wealthy donors and considering selling some of his assets to meet the deadline of his bond payment — March 25.
“These baseless innuendos are pure bull——,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement. “President Trump has filed a motion to stay the unjust, unconstitutional, un-American judgment from New York Judge Arthur Engoron in a political Witch Hunt brought by a corrupt Attorney General.”
“A bond of this size would be an abuse of the law, contradict bedrock principles of our republic, and fundamentally undermine the rule of law in New York. President Trump will continue fighting and beating all of these Crooked Joe Biden-directed hoaxes and will Make America Great Again,” he said.
Judge Engoron ordered Mr. Trump to pay $355 million plus interest, which has amounted to more than $450 million and grows each day after he concluded that the former president and his oldest sons lied to banks about the value of their properties.
Mr. Trump and his campaign have railed against the case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, saying there were no victims, and the banks were paid and happy. Ms. James could start seizing his assets to pay the judgment if he doesn’t post bond by Monday.
He is trying to post a bond so the ruling enforcement can be paused while he appeals, but securing the money has proved to be an issue. In a court filing, Mr. Trump’s lawyers 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,” Mr. Trump’s attorneys wrote. “Even when it comes to publicly traded companies, courts routinely waive or reduce the bond amount.”
Mr. Trump has said that the amount due for the bond is going to force him to sell his assets at “fire sale prices.”
The former president has offered to post $100 million instead but was denied.
“Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision. In other words, he is trying to take my Appellate Rights away from me,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “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? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” he said.
Ms. James’ attorneys have said there is no reason he should be allowed to post a smaller bond.
“Defendants’ new factual allegations and legal arguments fail to support their extraordinary request for a stay based on a bond or deposit of less than one-fourth of the money-judgment amount,” Dennis Fan, a senior assistant solicitor general in Ms. James’ office, wrote in a filing to the New York appellate courts. “Defendants’ argument that obtaining a full bond is purportedly impossible is based on the false premise that they must obtain a single bond from a single surety for the entire judgment amount of $464 million.”
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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