Donald Trump's Appeal of Engoron Ruling Raises Question

Former President Donald Trump's attorneys filed a notice of appeal of Judge Arthur Engoron's ruling in his New York civil business fraud case, but the notice did not mention the bond he would need to post for an appeal.

New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron on Friday ordered Trump to pay $354.9 million in penalties after previously siding with New York Attorney General Letitia James in her civil lawsuit against the former president's businesses. James, a Democrat, accused Trump and top executives at his family company, The Trump Organization, of conspiring to increase his net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure loans.

Trump has maintained he did not engage in any wrongdoing, accusing James of targeting him for political purposes.

On Monday, his legal team filed the notice of appeal of the judgment on behalf of Trump, his adult sons and two Trump Organization executives, appealing the $464 million judgment and other "far reaching" relief.

They appealed Engoron's barring Trump from serving as officers or directors of a New York corporation and preventing him from applying for loans from New York chartered banks, according to the appeal reviewed by Newsweek on Monday

The notice specifically raises questions about whether the court "committed errors of law and/or fact, abused its discretion, and/or acted in excess of its jurisdiction," according to the filing.

However, the notice did not mention how Trump would post the bond required for the appeal. Trump has 30 days from Engoron's verdict to post the roughly $400 million bond to stop collections.

Former Federal Prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Newsweek on Monday that if Trump does not post cash or secure an appeal bond, his appeal would be dismissed, adding that there was "no reason to wait" for the former president to move to appeal quickly because interest is accruing each day.

"It's a lot of money, and bond companies may be hesitant to potentially have to enforce the agreement against a sitting president, so it may take some time to get the cash together or a bond in place," he wrote.

Legal experts noted that Trump did not say how he would post bond.

"But still no bond. Trump has 30 [days] from when judgment was entered to post one. If he doesn't, NY AG can begging to collect the judgment against him (including the daily interest add on)," posted former federal prosecutor Joyce White Vance in a post to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.

"IMO: The fact that Trump is seeking this relief so close to when the bond in @ejeancarroll's case is coming due means he's struggling to come up with the money for the bond," wrote MSNBC host Katie Phang.

Lawyer Don Lewis wrote, "Trump filed a notice of appeal for the $454MM judgment. It simply tells the court he intends to appeal. He has 6 months to 'perfect' his appeal, which means 6 months to file a legal brief with his arguments. He has NOT yet posted a bond or put any money in escrow for the appeal. Bond/escrow money needs to be in within 30 days of when the judgment was entered or Letitia James can start seeking to enforce the judgment."

Trump attorney Alina Habba has sought to dispel speculation that Trump cannot afford to post bond, saying during a Fox News interview earlier in February, "What they're trying to do between this case between my last case is put [Trump] out of business. It's not gonna work, number one. Number two, what they're doing is a scare tactic. Unfortunately, they picked the wrong guy to pick on, in my opinion, because he's strong, he's resilient and he happens to have a lot of cash."

Newsweek reached out to Trump's campaign for comment via email