Don Hankey, Who Backed Donald Trump's Bond, Donated to Democrats

Don Hankey, the chair of the company that helped Donald Trump pay his $175 million civil fraud bond, previously donated to California Democrats Ted Lieu and Bob Hertzberg according to Federal Elections Commission (FEC) filings.

In 2015, Hankey donated $2,600 to House Rep. Lieu, and in 2013, he donated $1,000 to Hertzberg, then a State Senate candidate.

Despite the donations to the Democratic pair, financial disclosures show that Hankey has overwhelmingly donated to Republican causes, including Trump's 2016 campaign and Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign.

Between 2013 and 2016, Hankey contributed four, separate donations of $33,400 to the Republican National Committee through the employer Nowcom, which provides software for auto dealers and finance companies. One of the $33,400 donations, in August of 2016, was listed as a returned donation.

Hankey is the CEO/founder of the Los Angeles-based Nowcom, one of eight companies within The Hankey Group.

"We are happy to support Republicans or Democrats if they are business friendly," Hankey said in an email sent to Newsweek Tuesday afternoon.

Newsweek contacted Lieu and Hertzberg via email Tuesday morning for comments.

By posting the reduced $175 million bond on April 1, the former president prevented the state from seizing his assets while he appeals a ruling that he and top executives at The Trump Organization inflated the value of his assets to obtain more favorable terms from lenders and insurers.

After helping Trump pay his bond, Hankey told ABC News that he is a Trump supporter.

"This is what we do at Knight Insurance, and we're happy to be able to accommodate the ex-president in this situation," Hankey said "I'd say it's more of a business decision, but I happen to be a supporter also."

"It was a relatively low number, and Donald Trump put up all the collateral in cash," he added.

Hankey told Newsweek via email Tuesday, "Knight Insurance would be happy to provide appeal bonds for members of either party."

On Truth Social, the former president wrote about his bond payment: "I've just posted a 175 Million Dollar Bond with the sadly failing and very troubled State of New York, based on a Corrupt Judge and Attorney General who used a Statute that was never used for this before, where no Jury was allowed, my financial statements were conservative and had a 100% perfect caution/non-reliance clause, there were no victims (except me!), there was no crime or damage, there was only success and HAPPY BANKS."

"As promised, President Trump has posted bond," Alina Habba, Trump's attorney, said in a statement on April 1. "He looks forward to vindicating his rights on appeal and overturning this unjust verdict."

Two weeks ago, Lieu chided Trump on X, formerly Twitter, after the former president's attorneys said that he could not pay a $464 million bond in the case that was later lowered to the $175 million amount.

"Trump claims he's a billionaire. But he can't pay a $464 million judgment. That means he is lying. How do I know? Math. #TrumpIsBroke," Lieu wrote.

Entrepreneur Mark Cuban took Lieu to task and said he was "wrong on this topic."

"Net worth is completely different than cash in the bank. We were in a zero interest rate environment for a long, long time. So keeping cash in the bank or even money markets was dumb. In fact searching for yield is what killed small banks last year," Cuban wrote.

Hertzberg, a California attorney, was previously Speaker of the California State Assembly and Majority Leader of the California State Senate.