Former President Donald Trump spent Monday morning raging on Truth Social ahead of a deadline to pay his $454 million fraud judgment or post bond to appeal it.
Trump at around midnight Monday morning cried “election interference” and claimed that he “intended” to use hundreds of millions on his campaign.
“Why should a Crooked, highly political New York Judge, Arthur Engoron, working in concert and coordination with an even more Corrupt Attorney General, Letitia ‘Peekaboo’ James, his Puppet Master, and the White House, be allowed to take away, and sell off, very successful properties and assets that took me years to zone, build and nurture into some of the best of their kind anywhere in the World - WHEN I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG!” Trump wrote.
“These Radical Left Lunatics and Communists ask me to pay a ridiculous and completely unheard of fine of over $450,000,000 only because they saw a similar amount in my bank account. I had intended to use much of that hard earned money on running for President. They don’t want me to do that — ELECTION INTERFERENCE!” he added.
There is no indication Trump has enough money to pay and his lawyers told a court last week that he was unable to secure bond despite approaching 30 different underwriters.
“They were laughing. Top executives of the largest surety companies had never seen anything of this size,” Trump’s son Eric complained on Fox News Sunday.
Trump last week claimed that he had $500 million in cash but his attorney Chris Kise told CNN that Trump was “talking about is the money reported on his campaign disclosure forms that he’s built up through years of owning and managing successful businesses.”
Trump at around 7 am claimed without evidence that the cases against him are “all coordinated by the White House and DOJ” and argued that his fraud judgment should be “ZERO.”
“There should be no FINE. Did nothing wrong! Why should I be forced to sell my ‘babies’ because a CORRUPT NEW YORK JUDGE & A.G. SET A FAKE AND RIDICULOUS NUMBER,” he wrote in another post.
Trump’s posts came as he is set to “face his greatest fears” in New York on Monday between both the payment deadline and a hearing in his Manhattan criminal prosecution in which he is seeking to delay the trial, The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman and Ben Protess reported.
Unless Trump can strike a last-minute deal, James could freeze Trump’s bank accounts and begin the process of seizing his properties. “The twin threats — on the same day, in the same town — crystallize two of Mr. Trump’s greatest and longest-held fears: a criminal conviction and a public perception that he does not have as much cash as he claims,” Haberman and Protess wrote.
CNN legal analyst Norm Eisen and attorney Andrew Warren warned that Trump on Monday faces a “one-two punch that has the potential to inflict lasting damage,” noting that James has already effectively filed a blanket lien on Trump’s Seven Springs property in Westchester County, N.Y.
“The bottom line, however, is that the New York attorney general is likely going to continue putting liens on Trump’s properties,” they wrote in a CNN op-ed. “And although she likely won’t evict Trump from his 30,000-square-feet Trump Tower apartment (which we now know is actually 10,996 square feet) immediately, even Trump has recognized that he may have to sell his ’Great Assets’ at ‘Fire Sale prices.’”
Experts think James is likely to first target Trump’s bank accounts, CNN reported.
“The banks are the easiest part, they’ll receive the judgment from the Attorney General - the court order - then the banks will enforce,” attorney Peter Katz, a former federal prosecutor at the Eastern District of New York who has handled fraud cases, told the outlet. “They take the funds from the account and put it in the attorney general’s accounts. The other stuff is a little more challenging.”
Seizing property would take much longer but would eventually require a sheriff to put his properties up for public auction.
“They could say ‘hand over the ownership of these 500 corporations and LLC’s to the sheriff for public auction’ or just enough so that they could satisfy the judgment or $455 million worth,” former assistant New York Attorney General Adam Pollock told CNN.
Trump is still waiting to hear whether an appeals court will lower the amount he has to pay or pause the judgment while his appeal is pending. If his appeals fails, he could file for bankruptcy.
“You don’t want him to file bankruptcy, then the debt will be discharged,” attorney Alden Smith, who specializes in debt collection, told the outlet. “If he files for bankruptcy then the judgment is automatically stayed. Bankruptcy is the biggest nemesis of collection enforcement for lawyers.”
But if Trump can’t come up with the money, he may have limited options.
“I don’t see any other way he could stop the process from proceeding without going into bankruptcy or getting a bond,” Smith said.
