‘Impossible’ for Trump to post civil fraud bond of £356m, say lawyers

Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appeal court on Monday that it is impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of his 454-million-dollar (£356 million) civil fraud judgment while he appeals.

The former president’s lawyers wrote in a court filing that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented”.

With interest, Mr Trump owes 456.8 million dollars (£358.9 million). In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe 467.3 million dollars (£367.19 million). To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth 557 million dollars (£437.67 million), Mr Trump’s lawyers said.

A state appeals court judge ruled last month that Mr Trump must post a bond covering the full amount to pause enforcement of the judgment, which is to begin on March 25.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in February that Mr 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 Mr Trump’s company, the Trump Organisation, to do business.

Mr Trump is asking a full panel of the state’s intermediate appellate court to stay the judgment while he appeals. His lawyers previously proposed posting a 100-million-dollar bond (£78.6 million), but appeals court judge Anil Singh rejected that. A stay is a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals.

Judge Singh did grant some of Mr Trump’s requests, including pausing a three-year ban on him seeking loans from New York banks.

A real estate broker enlisted by Mr Trump to assist in obtaining a bond wrote in an affidavit filed with the court that few bonding companies will 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.

Mr Trump appealed on February 26, a few days after the judgment was made official. His lawyers have asked the Appellate Division of the state’s trial court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction.

Mr Trump was not required to pay his penalty or post a bond in order to appeal, and filing the appeal did not automatically halt enforcement of the judgment.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat, has said that she will seek to seize some of Mr Trump’s assets if he is unable to pay the judgment.

Mr Trump would receive an automatic stay if he were to put up money, assets or an appeal bond covering what he owes. He also had the option, which he is now exercising, to ask the appeals court to grant a stay with a bond for a lower amount.

Mr Trump maintains that he is worth several billion dollars and testified last year that he had about 400 million dollars in cash, in addition to properties and other investments.

In January, a jury ordered Mr Trump to pay 83.3 million dollars (£65.4 million) to writer E Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Mr Trump recently posted a bond covering that amount while he appeals.

That is on top of the five million dollars (£3.9 million) a jury awarded Ms Carroll in a related trial last year.

Elsewhere on Monday, a New York judge ruled that the infamous “Access Hollywood” video in which Donald Trump bragged about grabbing women sexually without asking permission will not be shown to jurors at the former president’s hush-money criminal trial.

Judge Juan M Merchan said prosecutors can still question witnesses about the tape, which was made public in the final weeks of Mr Trump’s 2016 White House campaign. But “it is not necessary that the tape itself be introduced into evidence or that it be played for the jury”, the judge said.

Judge Merchan issued rulings on the “Access Hollywood” tape and other issues even after deciding last Friday to postpone the trial until at least mid-April to deal with a last-minute evidence dump that Mr Trump’s lawyers said has hampered their ability to prepare their defence.

The judge scheduled a hearing for March 25, the trial’s original start date, to address that issue.