The New York Attorney General's Office has expressed skepticism regarding Donald Trump's claimed inability to secure a $454 million bond in his civil fraud case, arguing that the former president could have pledged his real estate properties to the courts.
In a filing on Wednesday, Dennis Fan, a lawyer with AG Letitia James' office, responded to Trump's lawyers' claim that he was facing "insurmountable difficulties" in finding a lender to back the full amount by the March 25 deadline as he seeks to appeal the hefty judgment against him.
Fan argued that if Trump and the other defendants "were truly unable" to secure the bond, they should have, at minimum, consented to have their real estate interests held by the courts to satisfy the judgment or pledged security in real estate holdings with sufficient value to secure payment of the entire judgment. The AG's office also suggested that Trump could have sought to break up the amount over multiple bonds by multiple banks, limiting any individual surety's risk to a smaller sum.
The filing highlighted that Trump was able to use real estate as collateral to back a bond for the $83 million judgment he owes writer E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case. "The use of real estate as collateral for an appeal bond is hardly impossible as a general matter," Fan wrote, criticizing the former commander-in-chief for failing to provide any proof of the failed efforts he made in looking for a backer.
Fan also questioned the value of Trump's properties, suggesting that surety companies may not have wanted to accept them as collateral because using his real estate would generally require a property appraisal, and his holdings may not be as valuable as the defendants claim. During the trial, the value of some of Trump's key properties, such as Mar-a-Lago and his Trump Tower triplex, were constantly debated, with Trump claiming the Florida golf course was worth $517 million while a local appraiser pegged it at a much lower $27 million.
Trump's lawyer, Chris Kise, responded to the filing, stating, "The Attorney General's latest filing demonstrates her continued willingness to misrepresent the facts and misconstrue applicable law in her political crusade against President Trump."
As the legal battles continue, Trump's campaign on Wednesday called for donations from one million of his backers, warning that he could lose his New York properties. The message, sent by a joint fundraising committee that allocates money to his campaign and a separate political committee paying his legal bills, accused AG James of wanting to seize Trump's properties and portrayed her actions as part of a broader effort by Biden and Democrats to harm his reelection campaign.
The fundraising message links donors to the joint fundraising committee that Trump typically asks supporters to contribute through, alluding to James' case but not explicitly stating that the funds would be used for that purpose. It remains unclear if Trump could use the funds to pay for the judgment, as federal law prohibits the use of campaign money for personal expenses, although Trump has been able to use donor money to pay some of his lawyers' fees, claiming his legal defense is campaign-related.
Trump's lawyers told an appellate court in New York on Monday that their client had been rejected by 30 surety companies for a bond to cover the massive civil fraud judgment, bringing him closer to the possibility of having his properties seized. The former president must either pay the sum out of his own pocket or post a bond to stave off the state's seizure while he appeals Justice Arthur Engoron's Feb. 16 judgment against him for misstating property values to dupe lenders and insurers.
As the March 25 deadline approaches, the pressure mounts on Trump to secure the necessary bond or face the potential seizure of his prized real estate holdings. The ongoing legal battles, combined with the cash crunch facing his campaign, present significant challenges for the former president as he seeks to navigate the complex web of civil and criminal cases that threaten his real estate businesses and his bid for reelection in 2024.
