A New York appeals court agreed to slash Donald Trump’s bond in New York’s fraud case by more than two-thirds to $175 million while he appeals the verdict, throwing the former president a financial lifeline as the state prepared to start seizing his assets.
The decision was delivered on March 25 as Trump faced a deadline to either pay the $454 million verdict or post a bond for 120 percent of the judgment to put it on hold while he appeals. That would have amounted to nearly $545 million dollars, more cash than Trump said he had on hand. The former president was given 10 days to post the new bond.
The appeals court did not offer any explanation behind their decision.
The billionaire real estate mogul had sought to waive the bond entirely or post a smaller one of just $100 million, claiming he’d have to sell properties at a loss to raise cash. The new bond is still higher than what Trump said he could arrange, but the former president indicated he is prepared to pay it.
But the decision means Trump may be able to push ahead with his appeal without the risk of his assets being seized by New York Attorney General Letitia James for lack of payment. James had said she was prepared to seize assets including Trump’s skyscrapers in Manhattan and golf courses to pay the judgment.
The ruling is the latest twist in the case after Trump was found liable for inflating the value of his assets by billions of dollars a year to get better terms on loans from Deutsche Bank AG and other lender. The massive verdict was handed down in February by a state court judge. Trump denies wrongdoing and says he’s likely to get the verdict overturned on appeal.
The total damages in the case are $464 million dollars, including about $10 million dollars in penalties against Trump’s sons Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr. as well as the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer, Allen Weisselberg.
“Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud,” a spokesperson for James’s office said. “The $464 million judgment – plus interest – against Donald Trump and the other defendants still stands.”
The bond decision was handed down as Trump sat in a Manhattan courtroom in a separate criminal case accusing him of falsifying business records to conceal a hush-money payment to a porn star before the 2016 election. The judge in that case could schedule a trial for as soon as next month.
“I greatly respect the decision of the Appellate Division and I’ll post either $175 million in cash or bonds or security or whatever is necessary, very quickly within the 10 days and I thank the Appellate Division for acting quickly,” Trump said about the bond outside court.
The former president said last week he has almost $500 million in cash on hand, though he said he’d spend a “substantial” amount of that on his campaign to return to the White House in the November election.
The ruling is a major setback for James, who had argued that Trump should be ordered to post a bond for the full amount because he couldn’t be trusted to pay what he owes if his appeal fails. Trump could still appeal the bond ruling to New York’s highest court to seek a further reduction.
The former president had asked to post a smaller bond or no bond at all to ease the financial pressure on him while he campaigns to return to the White House. But his legal woes remain. He’s also challenging an $83.3 million verdict in another civil trial he lost this year and faces four criminal prosecutions, the first of which is likely to go to trial in Manhattan next month.
Before the two verdicts, Trump had a net worth of about $3.1 billion, the Bloomberg Billionaires Index estimates, and since then he hasn’t said how much cash he has on hand. But his recent court filing said the Manhattan-based Trump Organization would be forced to hold a “fire sale” of properties to raise enough cash for a bond.
Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for the November election, said in a March 18 filing that 30 insurance companies capable of providing large appeal bonds refused to accept his real estate as collateral, citing an industry standard to only accept cash or cash equivalents. His lawyers said he doesn’t have enough cash.
James responded in a March 20 letter saying that Trump had failed to provide evidence of why the companies wouldn’t accept his real estate as collateral.
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