Donald Trump's lawyers told a New York appellate court Monday that it's impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454 million civil fra❀ud judgment while h🍸e appeals.
The former president's lawyers wrote in a court filing that “obt🎃aining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible unde꧙r the circumstances presented.”
With interest, Trumꩵp owes $456.8 million. In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe $467.3 million. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth $557 million, Trump's lawyers sa♒id.
A staꦫte appeals court judge ruled last month that Trump must post a bond covering the full amount to pause enforcement of the judgment, which is to begin on March 25.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in February that Trump, his company and top executives, including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., sche🦩med for years to deceive banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals.
Among other 🌃penalties, the judge put strict limitations on the ability of Tr𝕴ump's company, the Trump Organization, to do business.
Trump is asking a ful𓄧l panel of the state's intermediate appellate court to stay the judgment while he appeals. His lawyers previously proposed posting a $100 million bond, but appeals court judge Anil Singh rejected that. A stay 💛is a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals.
A real estate broker en༒listed by Trump to assist in obtaining ඣa bond wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that few bonding companies will consider issuing a bond of the size required.
The remaining bonding companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral,” but “will only accept cash o♔r ca🉐sh equivalents (such as marketable securities)."
“A bond of this size is rarely, if e♑ver, seen. In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the w♚orld, not to individuals or privately held businesses,” the broker, Gary Giulietti, wrote.
Trump appealed on Feb. 26, a few days after the judgment was made official. His lawyers have asked the Appellate Division of the state's trial court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in🌺 excess” of his jurisdiction.
Trump wasn't required to pay his penalty or post a bond in order to appeal, and filing the appeal did not 🍨automaticalﷺly halt enforcement of the judgment.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, has said that she will seekꦫ to seize some of Trump's asꦆsets if he's unable to pay the judgment.
Trump would receive an automatic stay if he were to put up money, assets or an aꦓppeal bond covering what he owes. He also had the option, which he's now exercising, to ask the appeals court to grant a stay with a bond for a lower amount.
Trump maintains that he is worth several billion dollars and testified last year tha🐻t he had about $400 million in cash, in addition to properties and other investments.
In January, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her af♚ter she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump recently posted a bond covering that amount while he appeals.
That's on top of the $5 m𓆉illio🌄n a jury awarded Carroll in a related trial last year.
