Trump got a break this week when an appeals court lowered the amount of money he needs to put up to stop debt collection while he fights a ruling of more than $454 million in New York civil fraud.
What took place and what might happen next are shown below:
What is the verdict? Where did we come from?
After a months-long trial, state Judge Arthur Engoron told Trump to pay $355 million plus interest that was going up every day. This is what the ruling says.
The trial was caused by a case that The Attorney General of the State, Letitia James, filed. In order to get loans and insurance, she said that Trump, his company, and key officials lied about Trump’s wealth on financial documents that helped them get them.
Trump, who is now once again the likely Republican presidential candidate, denied the charges, as did his co-defendants. The defense said that bankers and insurers only used the unaudited financial statements to help them figure out how rich Trump was, not to make business choices. He says the papers didn’t really show how rich he was.
The attorney general won in court last month thanks to Engoron. Trump made a case.
In what way did the appeals court act?
On Monday, a group of five appeals judges decided to stop the collection and give Trump 10 days to pay $175 million. That was a big break, especially since one of the judges had turned down Trump’s earlier offer of a $100 million bond.
Under New York law, someone can stop a judgment from going into effect while they file an appeal by posting a bond or otherwise paying the amount that is due. A bond is basically a promise that the money will be paid if the appeal fails.
Lawyers for Trump said he couldn’t set up such a huge bond. They said that possible lenders wanted over $557 million in collateral, which is 120% of the ruling. They would only take cash or other liquid assets, not real estate. It’s usual for bonds to be worth more than the actual amount of the judgment so that they can cover the costs and interest that build up during the appeal.
Lawyers told Trump that he would need to have close to $1 billion in cash, stocks, or other flexible assets to put up as collateral for the bond and still keep some cash for his business. On his Truth Social platform, Trump said that he has almost $500 million in cash but wants to be able to spend some of it on his campaign.
In the meantime, James’ office had filed notice of the ruling, which is a formality that could lead to moving to collect.
What is Trump going to do next?
As soon as Trump heard the appeals court’s ruling, he said he would quickly come up with a bond, cash, or something similar.
Before the decision on Monday, Trump’s friend and insurance dealer Gary Giulietti swore to the appeals court that big underwriters usually won’t give out any bonds for more than $100 million. Lawyers for the state have said Trump might be able to get loans from more than one place. In the past, that has happened.
Trump’s money could get a big boost from the stock in his social media company. The first day that Trump Media & Technology Group Corp.’s shares were traded on the Nasdaq market was Tuesday. Share prices went through the roof.
Trump owns almost 60% of the business, which could be worth a lot of money if it keeps making money. For now, though, the company’s “lock-up” rule means that insiders can’t sell their brand-new shares for six months.
When has Trump done something else?
Trump got a $91.6 million hearings bond earlier this month to cover the money that a federal civil court jury gave to writer E. Jean Carroll. She says Trump sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and then slandered her when she told everyone about it in 2019. He doesn’t believe any of Carroll’s claims and is appealing.
That bond was backed by Federal Insurance Co., which is part of the big insurance company Chubb. It covers 110% of the $83.3 million that is owed.
After Carroll was found guilty in a related federal civil trial earlier, Trump put more than $5.5 million in cash in a court escrow account while he appealed the decision in that trial.
That money will pay for the ruling if it is upheld on appeal. Everything left over would go back to Trump.