Donald Trump’s lawyers on Monday said the former president has been unable to obtain a bond to guarantee payment of a $454 million civil-fraud judgment against him, despite trying to negotiate a deal with some of the largest suretors in the world.
In a filing to a New York appeals court, Trump said that the judgment, ordered by a state judge last month, was so large that suretors wouldn’t accept real estate as collateral and would require cash to guarantee the bond. A private company like the Trump Organization would need $1 billion in cash to obtain the bond and to continue to operate, an amount the company doesn’t have, the filing said.
“Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility,’” Trump’s lawyers wrote.The legal drama places Trump’s finances and his image as a successful business tycoon in peril less than eight months before voters will decide whether to elect him for a return trip to the White House.
The legal drama places Trump’s finances and his image as a successful business tycoon in peril less than eight months before voters will decide whether to elect him for a return trip to the White House.
Trump has asked a New York appellate court to waive the bond requirement while he appeals the judgment, arguing that paying now would cause him irreparable harm. If the court turns down his request and he is unable to obtain a bond, New York Attorney General Letitia James, who sued Trump in 2022, could begin enforcing the judgment at the beginning of next week. James, a Democrat, has said that if Trump can’t come up with the money, she will look to seize his assets.
