President Trump is on the hook for a $454 million judgment, according to the courts in New York. Judge Arthur Engoron presided over a stacked court in the civil fraud prosecution that was brought against Donald Trump. And it was done specifically in civil court, as opposed to criminal court, because the burden of proof is lower in civil court.
This is the case in which Attorney General Letitia James came into office pledging to target Trump, which prosecutors should not do. One does not go into office vowing to target “that guy.” Rather, one vows to prosecute a crime — not find the criminal. The person who does the crime is by definition, the criminal.
If a specific person is targeted, then that looks very much like malicious and selective prosecution, which is exactly what James was doing. She prosecuted Trump in this New York court for the great crime of supposedly inflating the value of his real estate assets in obtaining loans from the bank.
There was no allegation the banks that gave the loans were actually damaged. In fact, they all got their money back. Instead, the allegation is that by inflating the price of the real estate, inflating his assets, somehow Trump had perpetrated a fraud against the people of New York despite there being zero damages.
Then, a judgment was brought down of nearly half a billion dollars, which is totally insane. Of all the cases that have been brought against President Trump, this one is by far the most insane. The judgment is completely off-kilter. The insanity of using a statute like this in order to bankrupt someone for no damages is totally crazy.
WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show
But in order for Donald Trump to appeal that judgment — which, of course, he has to do — he had to post bond. The bond that he had to post was $454 million. He had to secure a bond to cover the total amount.
Trump is a very, very wealthy person. But when it comes to wealth, not all wealth is liquid. People who have a lot of money don’t have a bank account with a lot of money in it. What they often do have is real estate holdings or stock holdings. Those are illiquid assets, meaning they can be sold, offloaded, or borrowed against.
But Trump does not have $500 million on hand in a bank vault like Scrooge McDuck, who goes home every night to dump money into the vault and then swim around in it. That’s not how this works.
So he couldn’t secure the bond yet. That means if he cannot secure the bond in order to appeal, liens would be put on his properties. They would have to basically shut down the business workings of all of his properties, including properties that are not apparently located in New York. Letitia James, by the way, says that if Trump does not pay up, then the New York attorney general is prepared to seize his assets.
Yahoo Finance reported on this yesterday:
The former president must either pay the sum out of his own pocket or post a bond to stave off the state’s seizure while he appeals Justice Arthur Engoron’s Feb. 16 judgment against him for misstating property values to dupe lenders and insurers.
Trump, two of his adult children and other Trump Organization executives had so far approached the 30 companies through four separate brokers without success, his lawyers said. The other defendants face judgments totaling $10 million.
A bonding company would be on the hook for any payout if Trump loses his appeal and proves unable to pay.
One reason people are not putting up the money is that they are afraid that on appeal, the appeal will get rejected, and then Trump will have to pay up. And when Trump pays up, it wouldn’t be Trump paying up; it would be whoever put up the money. That money would then be seized and used as the payment for the actual judgment, and then they would have to turn around and go back to Trump and try to get the money from him.
Whatever the reasons are, Donald Trump is having a very difficult time posting bond. He has to post cash or bond within 30 days of Engoron’s formal entry of the order on February 23. So, in just six days, Donald Trump will either come up with bond in order to appeal, or Letitia James will seize his assets.
Yahoo Finance continued, reporting:
In a court filing on Monday, Trump’s lawyers urged a mid-level state appeals court to delay enforcement of the judgment, arguing the amount was excessive. It was unclear when the court, known as the Appellate Division, would rule.
I find it hard to believe there will be any circumstance in which this judgment is not knocked down. It is an insane proposition to negotiate with a bank by taking an opening position of “my real estate assets are worth X,” have the real estate assets surveyed by the bank to determine what the assets are worth, negotiate, come up with a loan, and pay the bank back, only to owe half a billion dollars to the state of New York.
This is purely an attempt by James to bankrupt Trump. That is all. This is an attempt to bankrupt him so as to forestall his ability to pay his legal bills in other legal cases.
Of all the cases brought against Trump, this is the one that is most obviously malicious prosecution. It is deeply malicious. The judge in this case, Arthur Engoron, is a political actor. He’s a clown. He made a clown out of himself in the courtroom. Letitia James is a clown.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILY WIRE APP
If you can try Donald Trump in New York with the New York jury, you can get away with pretty much anything in front of a New York judge.
And that is not equal application of the law. It’s incredibly, incredibly dangerous. It is also, by the way, one of the reasons there is capital flight from places like New York; a lot of people are looking around, saying, “Hold up. If they don’t like me, they’re just going to seize my assets?” That is what it looks like in the state of New York right now.
The Democrats are pulling out all the stops against President Trump.
And it’s incredibly ugly.