A New York appeals judge has denied Donald Trump’s request to pay just $100m of the $454m judgment for his New York fraud trial.
Trump’s lawyers had asked the appeals court to halt the collection of the rest of the amount, along with the judgment’s ban on Trump securing new loans from New York banks, until the appeal goes through.
On Wednesday, Judge Anil Singh appeared to have some sympathy for Trump, staying the ban over Trump from taking out loans from New York banks and another ban on him serving as an officer of a New York company, both for the next three years.
“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 Clifford Robert, Alina Habba and Michael Farina wrote.
The New York attorney general’s office said the appeals court should deny Trump’s request as Trump has not said he does not have the assets to fulfil the judgment’s full amount.
“Defendants all but concede that Trump has insufficient liquid assets to satisfy the judgment; defendants would need ‘to raise capital’,” prosecutors told the court in a filing. “A prevailing plaintiff is entitled to have her award secured, and defendants have never demonstrated that Mr Trump’s liquid assets could satisfy the full amount of the judgment.”
Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump, his company and top executives, including his sons Eric and Donald Jr, schemed for years to deceive banks and insurers by inflating his wealth on financial statements used to secure loans and make deals. Among other penalties, the judge put strict limitations on the ability of Trump’s company, the Trump Organization, to do business.
Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355m plus interest – pushing the penalty to more than $450m at the time of the ruling, with another $112,000 in interest accruing each day.
Trump filed his appeal on Monday. His lawyers are asking the appellate division of the state’s trial court to decide whether Engoron “committed errors of law and/or fact” and whether he abused his discretion or “acted in excess” of his jurisdiction.
Trump was not required to pay his penalty or post a bond in order to appeal, and filing the appeal did not automatically halt enforcement of the judgment.
The Republican presidential frontrunner has until 25 March to secure a stay – a legal mechanism pausing collection while he appeals.
Trump would receive an automatic stay if he were to put up money, assets or an appeal bond covering what he owes. He also had the option, which he has now exercised, to ask the appeals court to grant a stay with a bond for a lower amount.
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Trump lawyers said Trump’s vast real estate assets and oversight mandated by Engoron’s ruling, including supervision of his company by an independent monitor, “would alone be sufficient to adequately secure any judgment affirmed”.
The $100m bond, they said, “would simply serve as further security”.
Trump, the leading candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, maintains that he is worth several billion dollars and testified last year that he had about $400m in cash, in addition to properties and other investments.
In all, Trump has at least $543.4m in personal legal liabilities from Engoron’s ruling and two other civil court judgments in the last year.
In January, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3m to writer E Jean Carroll for defaming her after she accused him in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. That is on top of the $5m a jury awarded Carroll in a related trial last year.
Associated Press contributed to this report