New victory for Trump: the court reduced the amount of bail in the fraud case

Donald Trump on Monday won a bid to stay the judgment in a $454 million civil fraud case. For at least 10 days. This is exactly the period the court gave the former US President for the Republican leader to post bail in the amount of $175 million.

Oh, and this bug Trump! No matter how fate throws him into legal problems, he emerges victorious. A New York court handed Donald Trump a lifeline Monday as time ran out for the former president to secure bail covering $454 million in losses in his recent fraud case.

A panel of appeals court judges gave Trump 10 days to post a much lower bail of $175 million, just hours before New York’s attorney general could legally begin the long, slow process of seizing his assets.

The bail reduction does not reduce the total $454 million fine Trump would ultimately have to pay if the appeals court upholds the decision. Rather, the reduced bail serves to ensure that Trump will pay the full fine if his appeal is denied. It is unclear how long the appeals court will take to make its decision. In general, this may take at least several months.

“I very much respect the decision of the appellate court and will very quickly put up $175 million in cash or bonds or securities or whatever is necessary,” Trump told reporters at a New York courthouse.

Last week, Trump’s lawyers said it would be “virtually impossible” for him to secure half a billion dollars in bail to cover the full penalty for his fraud losses.

“Bonds of this size are rarely, if ever, seen. In the unusual circumstances, when bonds of this size are issued, they are issued to the world’s largest publicly traded companies, rather than to individuals or private enterprises,” his lawyers argued.

People familiar with Trump’s finances told the New York Times that the former president should be able to provide collateral to cover the smaller amount.

In addition to the fine, Trump also faces a ban on running any company based in New York and obtaining loans from any banks in the state for the next three years. The court-appointed monitor, who has overseen the Trump Organization’s financial reporting for the past several years, will also continue to oversee the company for an additional three years as part of the ruling.

If the appeals court had upheld the full amount of the bail fine, the attorney general’s office would likely have begun the slow process of seizing Trump’s assets, including such prized properties as 40 Wall Street and Trump Towers.

In a statement, the Attorney General’s Office stressed that “a $464 million judgment – plus interest – against Donald Trump and the other defendants still remains in effect.”

“Donald Trump still faces accountability for his stunning fraud. The court has already established that he engaged in fraud for years to fraudulently increase his wealth and unfairly enrich himself, his family and his organization,” the statement said.

At Truth Social, Trump once again attacked Letitia James and Arthur Engoron, the judges who oversaw the fraud case: “This is the fifth time this case has been overturned, a record. The credibility of him and Letitia James was undermined. We will comply with the Appellate Division’s decision and post either the bond, equivalent securities, or cash. It also shows how ridiculous and outrageous Engoron’s original $450 million decision was. I DID NOT DO ANYTHING WRONG.”

In a civil case in New York, Trump was found guilty of fraudulently inflating his wealth by billions of dollars to secure better credit and insurance terms. He said the case was a political vendetta against Letitia James.