Donald Trump can’t get bond to appeal $700m civil fraud judgment after approaching 30 firms: lawyers

Donald Trump approached 30 companies to help with a more than $700m bond after he lost a civil trial – but none will help, his lawyers have said.

Former US President Donald Trump sits inside the courtroom for the third day of his civil fraud trial in New York on October 4, 2023. The New York judge presiding over Donald Trump's trial for allegedly covering up hush money payments linked to extramarital affairs ordered a delay on March 15, 2024 in proceedings that had been scheduled to get underway on March 25. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

Former US President Donald Trump approached more than 30 firms to secure the $A708 million ($US464 million) bond that’s due in the civil fraud case against him — and faces “insurmountable difficulties” in doing so, his attorneys argued in court papers on Monday.

The former president asked an appeals court to pause the March 25 deadline by which he must post the bond as he fights the financially crushing ruling New York Attorney-General Letitia James won at trial, reported the New York Post.

“Defendants have faced what have proven to be insurmountable difficulties in obtaining an appeal bond for the full $464 million,” Trump Organisation general counsel Alan Garten wrote in court papers from Monday.

Mr Trump, 77, is “financially stable” and he still has “substantial assets” but backers won’t accept the real estate tycoon using his properties as collateral to back the massive bond, Mr Garten explained, noting it was a “major obstacle”.

Former US President Donald Trump in court during his civil fraud trial in New York on October 4, 2023. (Photo by ANGELA WEISS / AFP)

These companies also require roughly 120 per cent of the judgment amount’s worth of collateral – or in this case $A850m ($US557m), Trump’s lawyers wrote in the nearly 5000 pages of documents filed on Monday, including thousands of exhibits.

The companies charge 2 per cent a year to back a bond, with two years upfront, totalling $27.5 million, which Mr Trump wouldn’t get back even if he won the appeal, the filings claim.

The “actual amount of cash or cash equivalents required ‘to collateralise the bond and have sufficient capital to run the business and satisfy its other obligations’ approach[es] $1 billion ($A1.5bn)” according to the court docs.

Gary Guilietti, the president of insurance surety Lockton Companies who has been helping Mr Trump’s efforts to get a bond, wrote in an affidavit: “While it is my understanding that the Trump Organisation is in a strong liquidity position, it does not have $1 billion in cash or cash equivalents”.

New York Attorney-General Letitia James. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago / GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA / Getty Images via AFP)

The presumptive Republican presidential nominee has reached out to 30 surety companies through four different brokers and he’s spent “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world” — all with no success, the filing claims.

The lawyer general has opposed Mr Trump’s bid to be allowed a lesser bond amount claiming he and his co-defendants “will attempt to evade enforcement of the judgment or to make enforcement more difficult”.

But Ms James should be assured that the 45th president would still be good for the money, his lawyers claim.

“Defendants’ real estate holdings — including iconic properties like 40 Wall Street, Doral Miami, and Mar-a-Lago, — greatly exceed the amount of the judgment,” the filing says. “Such assets are impossible to secrete or dispose of surreptitiously, leaving the plaintiff effectively secured during the pendency of an appeal.”

Mr Trump’s lawyers have said the former President’s assets exceed the amount in the judgement.

In February, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron – who oversaw the three month trial against Trump and others – ordered Trump to pay $US464 million for his decade of exaggerating assets by billions a year on financial statements to get better loan and insurance terms.

Mr Trump – who faced trial alongside his two eldest sons and others in his real estate empire – has denied any wrongdoing and has sought to paint the trial as being part of a political witch hunt that a Democratic cabal is carrying out against him, led by President Biden.

This story appeared in the New York Post and is reproduced with permission.