New York AG pushes back on Trump's 'extraordinary' request to stay $464M fraud judgment
Trump's lawyers say he is unable to secure a bond for the judgment.
ByPeter Charalambous and Aaron Katersky
March 20, 2024, 9:43 AM
New York Attorney General Letitia James is pushing back on Donald Trump's "extraordinary" request for a stay of his $464 million civil fraud judgment, arguing the former president's recent request was unreliable, procedurally improper and based on a flawed premise.
"There is nothing unusual about even billion-dollar judgments being fully bonded on appeal," Senior Assistant Solicitor General Dennis Fan said in a filing this morning. "Defendants object to a possible 'fire sale' if they were to sell assets to generate cash to use as collateral for a bond or as a deposit —but the alternative would be to shift the risk of executing on defendants' illiquid assets to OAG."
Earlier this week, Trump's lawyers argued that the former president is unable to secure a bond for the judgment – having been rejected by over 30 insurance companies – due to its size and his need to post properties as collateral.
The AG argued that the former president has failed to demonstrate his effort to secure a bond using properties as collateral, suggesting the issue is a product of Trump's doing because his "holdings are not nearly as valuable as defendants claim."
"Defendants supply no documentary evidence that demonstrates precisely what real property they offered to sureties, on what terms that property was offered, or precisely why the sureties were unwilling to accept the assets," the filing said. "As far as the Court can infer, sureties may have refused to accept defendants' specific holdings as collateral because using Mr. Trump's real estate will generally need 'a property appraisal' ... and his holdings are not nearly as valuable as defendants claim."
If Trump is unable to secure a single bond for the $464 million judgment, James said the former president could attempt to secure multiple smaller bonds – "$100 or $200 million apiece" – or consent to have his real-estate interests held by the Supreme Court to satisfy the judgment.
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https://abcnews.go.com/US/new-york-ag-pushes-back-trumps-extraordinary-request/story?id=108309706
