State lawyers asks court not to let Trump forgo bond
NEW YORK — New York state lawyers urged an appellate court Wednesday not to buy former President Donald Trump’s claims that it’s impossible to post a bond fully covering a $454 million civil fraud judgment while he appeals.
The presumptive Republican nominee’s lawyers said earlier this week that he couldn’t find an underwriter willing to take on the entire amount. But the state is arguing that Trump and his co-defendants didn’t explore every option.
The “defendants fail to propose a serious alternative to fully secure the judgment,” Dennis Fan, a lawyer in the state attorney general’s office, wrote in papers sent to the appeals court.
He suggested those alternatives could include dividing the total among multiple bonds from different underwriters — or letting a court hold some of Trump’s real estate while he appeals. The expresident is challenging a judge’s ruling last month that he, his company and key executives inflated his wealth on financial statements that were used to get loans and insurance.
One of Trump’s attorneys, Christopher Kise, said in a statement that the papers showed Attorney General Letitia James’ “continued willingness to misrepresent the facts and misconstrue applicable law in her political crusade” against Trump. James is a Democrat, and Trump has repeatedly cast her as a partisan official trying to dent his campaign.
In a radio interview early Wednesday, Trump reiterated his complaints about the case, the judgment and the bond requirement.
“They don’t even give you a chance to appeal. They want you to put up money before the appeal. So if you sell a property or do something, and then you win the appeal, you don’t have the property,” Trump said on WABC’s “Sid & Friends In The Morning.”
Under the judgment, Trump needs to pay more than $454 million in penalties and evergrowing interest; some of his co-defendants owe additional money. So far, courts have said that if the former president wants to delay collection while he appeals, he’ll have to post a bond for his entire liability.
Trump said last year he has “fairly substantially over $400 million in cash.” But he’s now facing more than $543 million in personal legal liabilities from judgments in the civil fraud case, brought by James, and in two lawsuits brought by writer E. Jean Carroll. The advice columnist said Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, then defamed her after she came forward in 2019.
He denies all the allegations.