Donald Trump said Tuesday that he might have to sell some of his properties an cheap “fire sale” prices to pay the $464M bond in his New York civil fraud case.
“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. Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social site.
“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.
Trump’s rant came after his lawyers said in a court filing Monday that he is unable to secure the full bond amount due in his New York civil fraud case, which one insurance broker called “a practical impossibility.”
“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s lawyers wrote, according to CNN.
Last month, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million in penalties in the civil fraud case.
Trump is appealing the decision, but must put up the bond in order to have his appeal go forward.
The former president’s lawyers are asking to delay posting the bond until his appeal of the case is over, arguing that the value of Trump’s properties far exceed the judgment, but underwriters are seeking cash to back the bond, not properties.
