Trump: $464M bond would require ‘fire sale’ of properties |
Former President Trump says he would have to take extreme measures to be able to pay a massive bond due next week in his New York civil fraud case.
“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!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Tuesday.
Trump’s attorneys have argued that the amount is so massive that it is impossible to meet. The total, including interest, is more than $464 million.
“Defendants’ ongoing diligent efforts have proven that a bond in the judgment’s full amount is ‘a practical impossibility,’” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a filing this week, citing an affidavit signed by an insurance broker who testified for Trump during the trial last year.
Trump’s attorneys claim they have spent “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world” and have approached 30 companies to back the bond, efforts they said they were pursuing before the judgment was made.
“Very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.
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Welcome to Evening Report! I’m Liz Crisp, catching you up from the afternoon and what’s coming tomorrow. Not on the list? Subscribe here. |
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| SCOTUS: Texas can enforce strict immigration law |
Texas can begin enforcing its controversial state law targeting illegal immigration, the Supreme Court ruled in a 5-3 decision Tuesday.
The law, which Texas’s GOP-controlled Legislature passed last year, allows state and local authorities to arrest people they suspect of illegally entering Texas from Mexico.
The Biden administration challenged the law, arguing it would be an “unprecedented intrusion into federal immigration enforcement.”
Texas argued the state has a constitutional right to defend itself because the Biden administration was unwilling or unable to control the southern border, leading to an influx of undocumented immigrants.
Under this law, which is backed by Gov. Greg Abbott (R), those who are arrested could face deportation or jail time.
The Justice Department had sought to put the law on hold until other issues are resolved, but the justices rejected that proposal, allowing the law to go into effect, at least temporarily.
The legal battle now returns to a three-judge panel on the 5th Circuit, which is hearing Texas’s appeal on the merits with oral arguments scheduled April 3. The losing party could then appeal the case back to the Supreme Court. The three liberal justices dissented in Tuesday’s order. Related coverage:
Supreme Court unanimously rules against government in No Fly List case (The Hill) |
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Ex-Trump adviser Navarro reports to prison |
Peter Navarro, a White House adviser in former President Trump‘s administration, has started his four-month prison sentence for refusing to comply with a congressional subpoena related to the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol.
“They can put me in prison; they can put you in prison,” Navarro said during a parking lot press conference Tuesday just before he reported to the Miami facility. “Make no mistake about that, and make no mistake about this: They are coming after Donald Trump with the same tactics, tools and strategies they used to put me over there today.”
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Milley, McKenzie testify on Afghanistan withdrawal
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Two of the nation’s top former military officials spent Tuesday afternoon testifying before a House panel about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021.
Former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chair retired Gen. Mark Milley and former U.S. Central Command and Department of Defense Commander retired Gen. Kenneth McKenzie detailed to the House Foreign Affairs Committee mistakes in the chaotic withdrawal as the Taliban rapidly took over the country.
Both are career military officers who served in senior roles under former President Trump and President Biden but have since retired.
Thirteen U.S. troops and at least 170 Afghans were killed when a suicide bomber attacked the airport in Kabul during a frenzied evacuation effort.
Milley has called the withdrawal a “strategic failure” and said he has “lots of regrets” about how U.S. operations in the country ended. (The Hill) |
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Election day in Ohio: High-stakes GOP Senate primary among big races
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As Ohio voters head to the polls Tuesday to decide a much-watched GOP Senate primary, a new poll has found Trump-backed businessman Bernie Moreno with a lead in the race.
The Emerson College poll of likely GOP voters, which was conducted Sunday and Monday, found Moreno with 38 percent support to state Sen. Matt Dolan‘s 29 percent.
Just 12 percent of voters surveyed said they favor Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.
Trump campaigned alongside Moreno over the weekend, so the Ohio race is seen as a test of his endorsement.
Dolan’s candidacy has been endorsed by Ohio Republican standard bearers — Gov. Mike DeWine and former Sen. Rob Portman. |
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CDC issues health alert as 2024 measles cases match last year’s total
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has issued a health advisory as measles cases are spiking in the U.S. and abroad.
The CDC has confirmed at least 58 measles cases across 17 states this year — matching the total cases for all of 2023. Nearly all this year have been linked to international travel.
“To prevent measles infection and reduce the risk of community transmission from importation, all U.S. residents traveling internationally, regardless of destination, should be current on their MMR [measles, mumps and rubella] vaccinations,” the CDC wrote in the advisory. (The Hill) |
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“Proposed TikTok ban is an affront to economic and personal freedom,” writes Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks.
“I once helped No Labels. The group has lost its way,” writes attorney Richard J. Davis. |
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118 days until the Republican National Convention.
153 days until the Democratic National Convention.
230 days until the 2024 general election. |
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