Lawyers for former United States President Donald Trump have told a New York appellate court that it is impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454m civil fraud judgement while he challenges the ruling.
The lawyers wrote in a court filing on Monday that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgement “is not possible under the circumstances presented”.
With interest, Trump — the presumptive Republican nominee for president — owes $456.8m. In all, he and his co-defendants, including his company and top executives, owe $467.3m.
To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth $557m, Trump’s lawyers said.
A state appeals court judge ruled last month that Trump must post a bond covering the full amount to pause enforcement of the judgement, which is to begin on March 25.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in February that Trump, his company and top executives, including his sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr, schemed for years to deceive banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals.
Among other penalties, the judge put strict limitations on the ability of Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, to do business.
Trump is asking a full panel of the state’s intermediate appellate court to stay the judgement while he appeals. A stay is a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals.
His lawyers previously proposed posting a $100m bond, but appeals court Judge Anil Singh rejected that.
A real estate broker enlisted by Trump to assist in obtaining a bond wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that few bonding companies would consider issuing a bond of the size required.
The remaining bonding companies will not “accept hard assets such as real estate as collateral”, but “will only accept cash or cash equivalents (such as marketable securities)”.
“A bond of this size is rarely, if ever, seen. In the unusual circumstance that a bond of this size is issued, it is provided to the largest public companies in the world, not to individuals or privately held businesses,” the broker, Gary Giulietti, wrote.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, has said that she will seek to seize some of Trump’s assets if he’s unable to pay the judgement.
Trump, a Republican, has denied wrongdoing in the case, arguing that James is targeting him for political reasons.
The New York civil case is one of many legal woes that Trump is facing as he heads into the US presidential election against Democratic President Joe Biden in November.
The former president is also appealing a $83.3m defamation verdict for the writer E Jean Carroll, who had accused him of falsely calling her a liar after she said that he sexually assaulted her decades ago.
Trump must also contend four sets of criminal charges, including two cases over his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 elections, which he lost to Biden.
Prosecutors in New York are also accusing the presumptive Republican presidential nominee of making an illegal hush money payment to an adult film star ahead of the 2016 election. The trial in that case was set for March 25, but last week, a judge delayed it by 30 days at the defence’s request.
The former president says all the legal cases against him are a part of a “witch hunt” designed to derail his presidential campaign.
“Why didn’t they bring these Fake Biden inspired cases against me 3 years ago? Because Crooked Joe Biden wanted them to be brought right in the middle of my 2024 Presidential Election Campaign, strictly Third World Country ‘stuff!'” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Monday.
Despite his legal issues, Trump won the race for the Republican nomination with relative ease, defeating several rivals, including former Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley.
Some recent public opinion polls show that Trump — whom Democrats describe as a threat to US democracy — may be leading Biden in key battleground states.
