Trump no longer needs to post full $454M bond in civil fraud case, court rules

NEW YORK — A panel of state appeals judges gave Donald Trump a significant reprieve Monday by lowering the amount of the bond he must post to stop enforcement of a $454 million civil judgment for corporate fraud.

Trump can post a bond of just $175 million while he appeals the verdict, the five-judge panel ruled in a terse order, after the former president said he couldn’t obtain a bond to cover the full judgment.

The ruling came on the last day of a 30-day grace period Attorney General Tish James granted Trump before she said she would begin to collect on the judgment, which could involve seizing his assets.

The appellate panel gave Trump 10 days to post the reduced bond. Speaking to reporters shortly after the ruling was issued, the former president said he plans to do just that.

“I greatly respect the decision of the appellate division and I’ll post either $175 million bond in cash or bond or security or whatever is necessary within the 10 days,” Trump said during a break in a court hearing in Manhattan on the unrelated criminal hush-money case he is facing.

In court filings, Trump said that posting a bond for the full amount of the judgment was impossible. His lawyers said he had been rejected by 30 insurance companies for a bond in that amount. They had urged the appellate panel to allow Trump to file a $100 million bond instead.

Trump and the other defendants — who include his adult sons and several business associates — owe a judgment totaling $464 million after Justice Arthur Engoron of Manhattan found that Trump and his company had systematically inflated the value of his real estate properties.

About $454 million of that was awarded against Trump and his companies, while Trump’s sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump were hit with judgments of about $4 million apiece and former Trump Organization chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was ordered to pay about $1 million.

In civil cases, a bond is a promise by a third-party company to pay the judgment if the defendant ultimately loses on appeal. A defendant typically has to offer collateral and pay substantial fees to the company underwriting the bond — and in most cases, the defendant is required to post a bond large enough to cover not just the amount of the judgment, but also the interest that accumulates while the case is on appeal.

In addition to lowering the amount of the bond, Monday’s ruling from the appeals court panel halted several other aspects of the civil fraud verdict, including one that barred Trump from serving as an officer or director of a New York business for three years and another that barred Trump’s adult sons, who run the Trump Organization, from serving as officers or directors of a New York business for two years.

However, the decision leaves in place a court-ordered monitor who could raise the alarm if Trump’s businesses try to dispose of any significant assets while the appeal is pending.

The ruling — issued by a panel of the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court — means the civil fraud case could remain effectively frozen through the November election. The panel told Trump’s lawyers to prepare his case to be presented at the court’s September term, and any decision on the merits of the appeal could take weeks or months.

James had opposed the reduced bond. A spokesperson for the attorney general did not directly address the court’s order on that issue, but emphasized that the verdict and judgment against Trump and his businesses is unaffected.

“Donald Trump is still facing accountability for his staggering fraud,” the James spokesperson said in a statement. “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.”

Trump will now be seeking a $175 million bond after obtaining a $91.6 million bond earlier this month to stave off enforcement of an $83.3 million verdict against him for defaming author and advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. Trump has denied the claim, but a federal civil-court jury found him liable for sexual assault.

It’s unclear what property, investments or cash Trump pledged to get the bond in the Carroll case. The insurance company that issued it, Chubb, later faced a wave of criticism and said it was not supporting or subsidizing Trump by agreeing to provide the bond.

Betsy Woodruff Swan contributed to this report.