By Laura Figueroa Hernandez
WASHINGTON – Former President Donald Trump is running out of time and options to post a $464 million bond before a March 25 court deadline allows the state to start seizing his assets to enforce a massive civil fraud judgment against him.
Last month, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million plus interest after ruling the real estate mogul was liable for engaging in years of business fraud, including inflating the value of his properties to obtain favorable loan terms for his family company, The Trump Organization.
Last month, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million plus interest after ruling the real estate mogul was liable for engaging in years of business fraud, including inflating the value of his properties to obtain favorable loan terms for his family company, The Trump Organization.
New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the business fraud case, has said she will move to seize Trump’s assets if he can’t pay the judgment.
“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets;’ James told ABC News last month.
The attorney general’s office did not return a request for comment on Tuesday.
Following are possible scenarios for Trump:
Selling properties
Trump could sell properties, but sales of major assets such as skyscrapers, resorts
and hotels typically take weeks if not months to finalize, legal experts said.
“It’s super highly unlikely that he would be able to get to a closing … that would get him cash in less than months;’ Mitchell Epner, a Manhattan white•collar defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, told Newsday. “Even if he struck a business deal today it takes a long time for these types of transactions to get documented in the courts:’
Cornell Law School professor Randy Zelin said real estate sales likely would be complicated by the fact that Trump has “partners, investors and other banks involved” in his holdings.
“It’s going to be a nightmare;’ Zelin said.
Personal loans
Trump could appeal to wealthy friends to loan him the money, but some legal experts said such loans could raise ethical questions. If elected president in November, Trump likely would face questions about whether the loans offered individuals access to influence Trump decisions on political appointments or policy matters, experts said.
“The only people who I could imagine doing that are people who think the value of having Trump
literally and metaphorically in their debt is worth more than $550 million;’ said Epner.
The Federal Election Commission does not limit federal candidates from accepting loans for expenses that arise from “stuff that happened before they were a candidate,” said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance attorney with the Washington D.C.-based law firm Harmon Curran.
James’ office started investigating Trump in 2019. The investigation examined his company’s
business practices from 2011 to 2021.
As a federal candidate, Trump would need to disclose any loans used for the bond payment on his annual financial disclosure report, Kappel told Newsday.
Bankruptcy
It’s unlikely that Trump, who has long touted his skills as a business owner, would seek to declare bankruptcy, Zelin said. Even if he does, it would not necessarily keep James from trying to seize his assets, Zelin said.
“It would probably only be a Band-Aid;’ Zelin said. “It would temporarily [stop) the enforcement, but the Attorney General’s office would move to;’ suspend the bankruptcy declaration.” … And if they prevail, then [declaring bankruptcy] was all for nothing.”
Political funds
Federal election laws prohibit Trump’s presidential campaign committee -Donald J. Trump for President -from providing him with money for personal use, but he could potentially tap into political action committee funds with little resistance from the FEC, said Kappel.
Kappel noted that Trump already has used his Save America PAC to pay for his legal fees and that of witnesses in the criminal cases he is facing in New York, Georgia, Florida and Washington D.C. “He could spend money from his leadership PAC to pay for this bond;’ Kappel said. “That would be way, way outside any other political committee spending I’ve ever seen, but not unusual for Trump:’
Even so, any money from Trump-aligned committees would only put a dent in the bond amount. The Save America PAC had $6 million in cash on hand at the start of the year, according to latest FEC filings.
A growing number of Republican National Committee members have expressed openness to having the national party cover some of Trump’s overall legal costs, according to a recent CNBC report. But Trump’s senior campaign adviser, Chris LaCivita, told reporters in February that RNC funds would not be used for his legal battles.
The RNC previously paid some of Trump’s legal bills. But former party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told the Washington Post in November 2022 the party would stop directing money toward his legal fees once he officially declared his candidacy for the 2024 presidential race.
Source: https://www.newsday.com/long-island/politics/trump-bail-gjqxogr1
