Trump Secures a Lifeline Over Massive Fraud Bond … for Now

Donald Trump secured a big win related to his New York bank fraud ruling on Monday, securing a reduced bond as well as a delayed deadline. The self-proclaimed billionaire and GOP front-runner will have an additional ten days to pay a reduced $175 million bond.

“It is ordered that the motion is granted to the extent of staying enforcement of those portions of the Judgment (1) ordering disgorgement to the Attorney General for $464,576,230.62, conditioned on defendants-appellants posting, within ten (10) days of the date of this order, an undertaking of $175 million dollars,” wrote Susanna Molina Rojas, a clerk of the Appellate court, in an order filed Monday.

The decision still bans Trump and his sons from serving as directors of officers of New York businesses for several years, as well as former Trump Organization CFO Alan Weisselberg and the business’s former controller, Jeff McConney.

Trump and his attorneys argued in a court filing last month that it would be “impossible” to secure a bond covering the full amount of the $464 million disgorgement, claiming they had tried and failed to the several guarantors and 30 suretors they had spoken to to lend Trump money on his terms.

“The exorbitant and punitive amount of the Judgment coupled with an unlawful and unconstitutional blanket prohibition on lending transactions would make it impossible to secure and post a complete bond,” Trump’s lawyers wrote.

But in a bizarre rant on his social media platform last week, the GOP presidential pick admitted that he actually has half a billion dollars in cash, which he decided would be better used to fund his presidential campaign than pay back the state of New York for defrauding its taxpayers, banks, and businesses.

“THROUGH HARD WORK, TALENT, AND LUCK, I CURRENTLY HAVE ALMOST FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH, A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF WHICH I INTENDED TO USE IN MY CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday. “THE OFTEN OVERTURNED POLITICAL HACK JUDGE ON THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT A.G. CASE, WHERE I HAVE DONE NOTHING WRONG, KNEW THIS, WANTED TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME, AND THAT’S WHERE AND WHY HE CAME UP WITH THE SHOCKING NUMBER WHICH, COUPLED WITH HIS CRAZY INTEREST DEMAND, IS APPROXIMATELY $454,000,000.”

And Trump is expected to come into even more money in the coming months. Also on Friday, Truth Social successfully merged with Digital World Acquisition Corporation—a deal that will allow the company to be traded publicly and is expected to net the financially beleaguered Trump upwards of $3 billion (though he may not be able to tap into that cash for some time.)

Ultimately, the decision comes as a blow to New York Attorney General Letitia James, whose office was gearing up to begin seizing some of Trump’s New York assets, such as 40 Wall Street and Trump Tower, as early as Monday.

This story has been updated.