Trump Says He May Have to Hold ‘Fire Sale’ of New York Properties

Former President Donald Trump revealed that he may have to hold a “fire sale” of his properties to pay his bond next week while appealing his $464 million New York fraud verdict.

Earlier this year, New York Supreme Court Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that the former president defrauded banks and insurance companies, ordering him to pay the hefty fine. His lawyers told the court earlier this week that he would be unable to secure the full bond by next week’s deadline.

“Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision. In other words, he is trying to take my Appellate Rights away from me,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 19. “Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before.”

The former president added that he will be “forced to mortgage or sell Great Assets, perhaps at Fire Sale prices, and if and when I win the Appeal, they would be gone. Does that make sense?”

He then said that the trial and penalty is a form of election interference as he campaigns for the presidency in 2024.

It’s not clear what assets President Trump could sell or pledge as collateral to obtain the bond.

President Trump’s lawyers wrote earlier that he is appealing the decision, but that he must put up the bond for it to move forward. This week, his lawyers wrote that the former president approached 30 underwriters to back the bond.

Gary Giulietti, an insurance broker who testified on behalf of President Trump during the civil fraud trial, signed an affidavit saying that it would be a “practical impossibility” to secure that amount for the bond appeal.

“The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude,” President Trump’s lawyers wrote. The amount increases by nearly $112,000 every day.

His lawyers asked the state’s intermediate appeals court to reverse a prior ruling requiring that he post a bond covering the full amount in order to halt enforcement while he appeals the judgment in New York Attorney General Letitia James’ lawsuit.

If the appeals court does not intervene, Ms. James can seek to enforce the judgment starting March 25. The Democratic attorney general has said she will seek to seize some of President Trump’s assets if he is unable to pay.

Collateral: 120 Percent of Judgment

In all, President Trump and his co-defendants, including his company, sons Eric and Donald Trump Jr., and other executives, owe $467.3 million. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral covering 120% of the judgment, or about $557.5 million, his lawyers said.

In another post on Truth Social, President Trump claimed that the size of the bond is “unConstitutional, un-American, unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine.”

He added, “The Bonding Companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before, nor do they have the ability to post such a bond, even if they wanted to.”

A campaign spokesperson did not say whether the former president will pay the full amount.

“This is a motion to stay the unjust, unconstitutional, un-American judgment from New York Judge Arthur Engoron in a political Witch Hunt brought by a corrupt Attorney General,” Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement to news outlets this week.

“A bond of this size would be an abuse of the law, contradict bedrock principles of our Republic, and fundamentally undermine the rule of law in New York. President Trump will continue fighting and beating all of these Crooked Joe Biden-directed hoaxes and will Make America Great Again.”

Aside from the civil fraud trial, a New York jury in January ordered the former president to pay $83.3 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her after a separate jury found that he assaulted her back in the mid-1990s. He has denied those charges, saying that he doesn’t know Ms. Carroll.

In that case, President Trump secured a $91.6 million bond to cover the Carroll judgment while he appeals it. Last year, a jury ordered President Trump to pay her $5 million in a related trial. In that case, rather than post a bond, he put more than $5.5 million in cash in an escrow account while he appeals.

In all, the former president has more than $543 million in personal legal liabilities from three civil court judgments in the past year or so. He’s also had to pay hefty sums to his attorneys to fight those cases.

President Trump faces criminal charges in New York, Georgia, Washington, and Florida. He has pleaded not guilty to all charges, saying they are a politically motivated persecution of him and his followers.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.