KEY POINTS
- Donald Trump should have pledged real estate to the courts if he were “truly unable” to secure a bond, the New York attorney general’s office said.
- Instead, Trump claimed it was “impossible” for him to get a bond using his properties, but did not provide any hard evidence for this, the AG’s office said.
Donald Trump should have pledged real estate he owns as collateral against a $464 million business fraud judgment if he were “truly unable” to secure an appeal bond for that amount, the New York attorney general’s office said in a court filing Wednesday.
Trump also failed to provide evidence supporting his claim this week that it was “impossible” to obtain an appeal bond by using the properties as collateral, a lawyer for AG Letitia James wrote.
“Defendants supply no documentary evidence that demonstrates precisely what real property they offered” to potential insurers," wrote Dennis Fan, senior solicitor general in the AG’s office, in the filing to Manhattan appeals court judges.
Nor did they report “on what terms that property was offered, or precisely why” bond insurers “were unwilling to accept the assets.”
I can quickly come up with some reasons why they might not want to put up the collateral that have nothing to do with his actual finances: like public backlash, being notorious for not paying back his debts, and being convicted of lying about how much stuff is worth (so not trustworthy in that regard).
It’s just none of this has anything to do with what he’s actually saying. Which is ultimately my point.
And we are both sitting here with our popcorn anxiously awaiting it to all come crashing down. It can’t happen soon enough, IMO.
Those are all other possibilities, I just don’t find them as likely IMO. But they could be. But, either way, my point is that - and I was more explicit about it in another comment - it doesn’t matter what he says, especially to the court. He has the right to appeal and the right to post a bond, but Trump has no right to be able to afford a bond, and if he can’t, tough shit.
And he’s got 4 1/2 days to beg, borrow, or steal it before the People of the State of New York come after his grifting ass.