New York Attorney General Letitia James thought she had Donald Trump right where she wanted him.
But then James got hit with a nasty curveball.
And Letitia James had the worst day of her life thanks to this humiliating defeat.
The New York Appellate Division severely reduced the bond Donald Trump needed to post to appeal Judge Arthur Engoron’s civil fraud verdict from $464 million to $175 million.
This ruling came hours before James was all set to begin seizing Trump’s properties like his golf course in Westchester or his building at 40 Wall Street and begin selling them off to satisfy the judgment in the show trial she and Engoron staged against Trump.
Trump praised the decision as an obvious correction to partisans like Engoron and James weaponizing the justice system to interfere in the 2024 election while also announcing he would post the bond within the requisite 10 days.
“We will abide by the decision of the Appellate Division, and post either a bond, equivalent securities, or cash,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “This also shows how ridiculous and outrageous Engoron’s original decision was at $450 Million. I DID NOTHING WRONG, AND NEW YORK SHOULD NEVER BE PUT IN A POSITION LIKE THIS AGAIN. BUSINESSES ARE FLEEING, VIOLENT CRIME IS FLOURISHING, AND IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT THIS BE RESOLVED IN ITS TOTALITY AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. THANK YOU!”
Reporters later asked Trump how he planned to post the bond.
Trump shot back a one-word answer.
“Cash.”
Trump says his collateral for the $175 million bond is "cash." pic.twitter.com/Pl3W3tPQYd
— Citizen Free Press (@CitizenFreePres) March 25, 2024
Judge Engoron delivered the nuclear option of a $364 million judgment against Trump based on a number he made up out of thin air for the sole reason of preventing Trump from obtaining a bond in the first place.
New York law requires judgment plus interest to obtain a bond meaning Trump needed to pony up $464 million for the right to keep James from foreclosing on his properties while he appealed.
Trump’s lawyers noted that no company would accept real estate as collateral – the main source of Trump’s wealth – because, should Trump lose his appeal, those properties would get sold at fire-sale prices and there is no guarantee the bank would get their money back.
Engoron’s judgment was intended to create a scene where New York county sheriffs would march over to Trump Tower and nail a foreclosure notice to the front door.
Joe Biden could run that image of Trump getting kicked out of his iconic Manhattan property on endless campaign commercials.
But in addition to the judgment being blatantly unconstitutional – it violated Trump’s Eighth Amendment right against excessive fines as even James admitted Trump never defrauded any lenders – it also sent shivers down the spine of the business community around the world.
Investors would now have to weigh if it was worth putting money into New York, knowing if the attorney general got up on the wrong side of the bed and branded them their political enemy, they could seize all their assets and empty their bank accounts.
Sanity ended up prevailing at the appellate court level.
And the fact that the appeals court slashed the bond Judge Engoron demanded Trump post to pursue his appeal makes it likely the appeals court isn’t likely to look kindly upon the political games Engoron and James played to come up with the $364 million fine.
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