Former President Trump asked a New York appeals court to put on hold the enforcement of the multimillion-dollar penalties he faces in his civil fraud case, suggesting he’d post a $100 million bond while the process plays out.
Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay nearly $355 million, plus interest, in penalties after finding he conspired to alter his net worth to receive tax and insurance benefits. The total judgment against Trump, which climbs nearly $112,000 in interest each day he doesn’t pay it, now amounts to more than $454 million.
On top of that, Engoron ruled Trump, his business and top executives could not obtain loans from New York banks for three years.
Trump’s lawyers wrote in court filings Wednesday that the staggering judgment makes it “impossible” to secure a bond covering the full amount, which would have automatically put enforcement of the penalties on pause.
“The exorbitant and punitive amount of the Judgment coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump’s lawyers wrote in a nearly 1,800-page court filing.
The lawyers also argued an independent monitor put in place by the judge would ensure Trump and his business pay up if they lose their appeal. Trump’s “vast ownership interests” in New York real estate — the many properties he owns there — “would alone be sufficient to adequately secure any judgment affirmed,” they said.
New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) has said she would seize some of Trump’s assets if he’s not able to cover the cost of the judgment.
In a letter to the appeals court responding to Trump’s effort to pause enforcement of the penalties, James’s office said it opposes any temporary pause — but especially if the former president doesn’t cough up all the cash on bond.
“There is no merit to defendants’ contention that a full bond or deposit is unnecessary because they are willing to post a partial undertaking of less than a quarter of the judgment amount,” state lawyer Dennis Fan wrote. “Defendants all but concede that Mr. Trump has insufficient liquid assets to satisfy the judgment; defendants would need ‘to raise capital’ to do so.”
Trump’s net worth is famously obscure, but estimators including Forbes and Bloomberg place his wealth between $2.6 billion and $3.1 billion. The former president previously told lawyers with the New York attorney general’s office that he has “substantially in excess of $400 million in cash.”
Trump filed his appeal on Monday with New York’s 1st Judicial Department Appellate Division. One of his lawyers, Alina Habba, said in a statement earlier this week that Trump’s team expects the court to “overturn this egregious fine and take the necessary steps to restore the public faith in New York’s legal system.”
Updated at 12:52 p.m.