Donald Trump had a meltdown after filing court papers this week claiming he can’t afford to pay the $464 million he owes as part of the New York civil fraud verdict won by New York Attorney General Letitia James, who vowed to seize the former president’s assets if he can’t cover the bill in cash.
Trump filed the motion in a mid-level state appellate court, asking for a delay in paying the staggering fine while he challenges the decision or to be allowed to post a lower bond of $100 million by his March 25 deadline, although usually, defendants must post a bond payment greater than the penalty to become eligible for an appeal.
The interest on the penalty is growing by more than $87,500 each day that Trump doesn’t pay the full amount, following a Feb. 16 ruling that found Trump liable for inflating the value of his New York real estate, including his hotels and golf clubs, while defrauding banks and insurers for decades.
Trump maintains his innocence and seeks to appeal the verdict despite lacking the necessary funds to do so. The former president said in a social media post on Tuesday that he would sell some of his properties for cheap “fire sale” prices in order to pay the debt.
“Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision. In other words, he is trying to take my Appellate Rights away from me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social about the New York judge who ruled against him. “Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before.”
“I would be forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” he added.
What Happens If Trump Can’t Pay Bond?
Posting the full bond would pause the fine collection until the appeal process is completed. For now, it is unclear whether the appellate court will rule on Trump’s March 18 bond reduction request before next week’s deadline.
Meanwhile, James continued to hail the verdict against Trump as a “massive victory” for New York, as she has kept track of Trump’s growing legal tab on social media, putting the total fine at $464,576,230.62 on Feb 23, and adding another $114,553.04 the next day without explaining the math.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James told ABC News last week.
Following the ruling by Judge Arthur Engoron, James has the power to go after Trump’s properties if the former president isn’t able to pay the fine in cash, meaning the attorney general could “could levy and sell his assets, lien his real property, and garnish anyone who owes him money,” Syracuse University Law Professor Gregory Germain told The Associated Press.
If Trump can come up with enough cash, either from his reserves or by liquidating assets, he could prevent his assets from being seized to pay his penalty and the accruing interest. He also has the option to file an appeal to New York’s highest court, which can also intervene with James’ seizure of his assets.
In the latest filing, Trump’s attorneys argued that the massive sum to secure the bond for the appeal was over the top, stating that enforcing such an exceptional requirement was unfair to Trump.
Lawyers also mentioned that sureties, which are companies that provide bonds, are unlikely to accept real estate or other hard assets as collateral for the bond.
As a result, Trump’s attorneys said they were hard-pressed to find an insurer to back the staggering sum and asked to pay $100 million, or about one-fifth of the total judgment, to initiate their appeal of the ruling.
“Despite scouring the market we have been unsuccessful in our effort to obtain a bond for the Judgment Amount for Defendants for the simple reason that obtaining an appeal bond for $464 million is a practical impossibility under the circumstances presented,” the filing said.
The filing included a statement supporting this argument from Gary Giulietti, an executive with Lockton Companies, the insurance firm that Trump hired to help secure a bond.
Trump’s legal team asked for oral arguments to be permitted regarding their request and also sought permission to escalate the matter to the highest appeals court in New York if the lower court rejected the filing.
What Is Trump’s Net Worth?
At the same time, speculation emerged over whether Trump even had the means to cover the fine, given his apparent struggles to pay the spiraling legal tab after he bragged for years about being one of the world’s wealthiest billionaires.
In a social media post about the filing, Adam Klasfeld, a fellow at Just Security, pointed out that Trump’s liquidity was well below the civil judgments against him and that he may have limited assets to use as collateral for the bond.
Last year, Trump stated he had approximately $400 million in cash reserves, which stood to be depleted by his extraordinary legal penalties. However, his most recent financial statement for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021, showed he had about $294 million in cash or cash equivalents.
Following his financial statement, Trump reportedly gained approximately $186.8 million from selling the lease on his Washington hotel in May 2022 and the management rights to a New York City golf course in June 2023.
As part of Trump’s penalty, he must surrender these proceeds, along with interest.
The majority of Trump’s net worth, which he claims is several billion dollars, is invested in golf courses, skyscrapers, properties, and other holdings.
The latest court filing underscored Trump’s dire financial situation as campaign disclosures in February revealed about $50 million from Republican donors was used to pay Trump’s runaway legal bills as he faced an onslaught of criminal and civil charges.
The ruling by Engoron also coincided with a separate judgment issued in a defamation lawsuit brought by author E. Jean Carroll, in which Trump was ordered to pay $83 million.
Initially, Trump was ordered to pay $355 million, which almost immediately surged to $454 million with interest.
Why Does Trump Owe the Bond?
The former president is requesting a $464 million bond to cover his increasing fine and pay for disgorgement for his two eldest sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., which entails forfeiting profits from their illegal activities, so they can appeal the ruling.
Court documents filed by Trump’s legal team claim it is “a practical impossibility” for the former president to pay the sum of nearly half a billion dollars, which was sought by James to pay the state back for its extraordinary losses over the years, plus interest.
James filed the civil action against Trump in 2022 after uncovering evidence of systematic fraud inside the Trump Organization, including schemes that inflated Trump’s net worth with bogus financial statements.
Last year, Trump and his adult sons testified in the trial and blamed accountants for gross financial mismanagement.
Both Trump Jr. and Eric Trump testified that they had little to do with their father’s financial statements, emphasizing that other executives inside the Trump Organization were responsible for keeping track of the books.
Ivanka Trump also testified that she didn’t know about the extensive paper trail of fraud inside the family business and sought to shirk responsibility after James alleged she played a pivotal role as an intermediary between the Trump Organization and Deutsche Bank in securing loans that were contingent on her father’s fraudulent financial reports.
The latest court filing by Trump’s legal team paints a clearer picture of Trump’s overall financial health as the Republican frontrunner faces two criminal trials in the coming months for his failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election results.
