Lawyers: Trump can't raise $464 million in bail
The former US president is expected to pay a lot of money in a fraud trial, but he may not, according to his legal representatives.
Political platform wins, legal setbacks: Donald Trump at a campaign rally in Vandalia, Ohio.
Photo: Kamil Krsacinski (AFP/March 16, 2024)
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According to his lawyers, former US President Donald Trump will not be able to make bail on the $464 million (about 412 million Swiss francs) fine he was charged with for financial fraud. This is according to a court document released in New York on Monday. The renewed Republican presidential candidate now faces the risk of the New York Department of Justice seizing portions of his real estate holdings.
For Trump, who has always hailed himself as a great businessman, such legal action will not only hurt his finances but also his image.
The real estate mogul's attorneys appealed the fine in a civil case. Regardless, he has to pay the deposit equal to the penalty and interest, for which he has until next Monday. If he doesn't raise the amount by then, New York Attorney General Letitia James could begin seizing Trump assets.
Posting bail is a prerequisite for the court to consider an appeal by Trump lawyers and stay the ruling pending a ruling on the appeal.
A “practical impossibility”
However, Trump's lawyers have now explained that posting the required bail is impractical. As part of their unsuccessful efforts, Trump and the other defendants contacted 30 insurance companies to raise money. However, there are rules that prohibit insurers from accepting real estate as security.
Trump offered to post just $100 million in bail in February. However, the appellate judge rejected this offer.
The former president and his sons, Donald Jr. and Eric, were found to have artificially inflated the assets of the family real estate empire by billions of dollars over the years to get better terms for loans and insurance.
So Trump was sentenced in mid-February to $355 million in fines plus interest, and each of his sons was fined $4 million plus interest. They were banned from operating companies in New York State for three years.
faces four criminal charges
For Trump, the fine, including interest, is now about $464 billion. In early March, he had already posted $91.6 million bail in a New York court in another case. In that case, columnist E. Trump was found guilty of defaming Jean Carroll. Trump deposited the amount so that his appeal against the defamation verdict could be considered.
Trump, who is expected to face incumbent Joe Biden in November's presidential election after winning the Republican primary, faces four criminal charges. These relate, among other things, to his role in the attack on the Capitol in Washington in January 2021 and his other efforts to overturn his election loss to Biden in November 2020.
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