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Former President Donald Trump was handed a lifeline on Monday as an appeals court agreed to lower the bond amount in his civil fraud case.
Trump was previously ordered to pay a bond amount worth over $400 million following a ruling from Judge Arthur Engoron.
"BREAKING: NY appellate court reduces Trump's bond to $175 million dollars in the NY AG's civil fraud case, if we wants [sic] to stay execution of the NY AG's judgment," Katie Phang of MSNBC wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.
The context:
Last month, Judge Engoron ruled in favor of New York Attorney General Letitia James's lawsuit against Trump and his sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr., over allegations that he inflated the value of his properties and his own net worth. The former president was ordered to pay $454 million in penalties and has been barred from conducting business in New York City for two to three years.
Trump was required to post the bond amount by Monday, March 25, to stop James from collecting his assets and properties.
What we know:
Last week, Trump's lawyers announced that they were unable to come up with the bond amount, saying, "Despite scouring the market, we have been unsuccessful in our effort to obtain a bond for the Judgment Amount for Defendants for the simple reason that obtaining an appeal bond for $464 million is a practical impossibility under the circumstances presented."
"As you can see, the appellate order also stays some portions of Justice Engoron's judgment, such as barring Trump from serving as an officer or director of any NY corp for 3 years, barring Trump from being able to apply for loans from NY financial institutions for 3 years, etc," Phang wrote in another post on X.
Views:
While speaking outside of court on Monday, Trump responded to the lowered bond amount, saying, "I greatly respect the decision of the appellate division, and I'll post either $175 million in cash, or bonds or securities, or whatever is necessary, very quickly, within the 10 days."
Trump also thanked the appellate courts for the lowered bond amount.
"Huge news as Trump's legal team faces testy questioning from Judge Merchan — a state appeals court says he has 10 more days to pay a $175 million bond in the civil fraud ruling, staying enforcement of the $454 million judgement against him and his company," CNN's Kaitlan Collins wrote on X.
Michael Steele, the former chairman of the Republican National Committee (RNC) said, "The NY Appeals Court has decided to give Trump more time to pay less money by reducing his bond from $454M to $175 and giving him 10 days to get the money. This makes absolutely no sense."
What's next:
In another post on X, Phang explained that the ruling requires Trump to post the $175 million lowered bond amount to prevent James from collecting the $464 million judgment.
Robert Costa of CBS News shared a statement from James's office which said, "Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud. The court has already found that he engaged in years of fraud to falsely inflate his net worth and unjustly enrich himself, his family, and his organization. The $464 million judgment – plus interest – against Donald Trump and the other defendants still stands."
Update 3/25/24, 11:55 a.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
Update 3/25/24, 12:28 p.m. ET: This article was updated with additional information.
About the writer
Matthew Impelli is a Newsweek staff writer based in New York. His focus is reporting social issues and crime. In ... Read more