Donald Trump running out of options on $464 million bond

WASHINGTON — Former President Donald Trump is running out of time and options to post a $464 million bond before a March 25 court deadline allows New York State to start seizing his assets to enforce a massive civil fraud judgment against him.

Last month, state Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million plus interest after ruling the real estate mogul was liable for engaging in years of business fraud, including inflating the value of his properties to obtain favorable loan terms for his family company, The Trump Organization.

In a court filing Monday, Trump’s legal team said the former president has been unable to find a company to back the nearly half-billion dollar bond, after reaching out to more than two dozen surety firms. The attorneys asserted Trump did not have the cash to post the full judgment amount in an escrow account, but could post a $100 million cash bond.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, who brought the business fraud case, has said she would move to seize Trump’s assets if he can’t pay the judgment.

“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment, then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court, and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” James told ABC News last month.

James' office did not respond to requests for comment, but in a filing Wednesday with a state appellate court, state lawyers argued Trump did not explore every option to secure a bond.

Dennis Fan, a lawyer in the attorney general's office, wrote Trump failed to “propose a serious alternative to fully secure the judgment.” Fan said Trump could have sought to divide the total judgment among multiple bonds from different underwriters or allow the court to hold some of his properties while he appeals.

Following are possible scenarios for Trump:

Selling properties

Trump could sell properties, but sales of major assets such as skyscrapers, resorts and hotels typically take weeks if not months to finalize, legal experts said.

“It’s super highly unlikely that he would be able to get to a closing … that would get him cash in less than months,” Mitchell Epner, a Manhattan white-collar defense attorney and former federal prosecutor, told Newsday. “Even if he struck a business deal today, it takes a long time for these types of transactions to get documented in the courts.”

Cornell Law School professor Randy Zelin said real estate sales likely would be complicated by the fact that Trump has “partners, investors and other banks involved” in his holdings.

“It’s going to be a nightmare,” Zelin said.

Personal loans

Trump could appeal to wealthy friends to loan him money, but some legal experts said such loans could raise ethical questions. If reelected president in November, Trump likely would face questions about whether the loans offered individuals access to influence his decisions on political appointments or policy matters, experts said.

“The only people who I could imagine doing that are people who think the value of having Trump literally and metaphorically in their debt is worth more than $550 million,” Epner said.

The Federal Election Commission does not limit federal candidates from accepting loans for expenses that arise from “stuff that happened before they were a candidate,” said Brett Kappel, a campaign finance attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based law firm Harmon Curran.

James' office started investigating Trump in 2019. The investigation examined his company's business practices from 2011 to 2021.

As a federal candidate, Trump would need to disclose any loans used for the bond payment on his annual financial disclosure report, Kappel told Newsday.

Bankruptcy

It’s unlikely that Trump, who has long touted his skills as a business owner, would seek to declare bankruptcy, Zelin said. Even if he does, it would not necessarily keep James from trying to seize his assets, Zelin said.

“It would probably only be a Band-Aid,” Zelin said. “It would temporarily [stop] the enforcement, but the attorney general's office would move to” suspend the bankruptcy declaration. “ … And if they prevail, then [declaring bankruptcy] was all for nothing.”

Political funds

Federal election laws prohibit Trump’s presidential campaign committee — Donald J. Trump for President — from providing him with money for personal use, but he could potentially tap into political action committee funds with little resistance from the FEC, Kappel said.

Kappel noted Trump already has used his Save America PAC to pay legal fees and those of witnesses in criminal cases he faces in New York, Georgia, Florida and Washington, D.C.

“He could spend money from his leadership PAC to pay for this bond,” Kappel said. “That would be way, way outside any other political committee spending I've ever seen, but not unusual for Trump.”

Even so, any money from Trump-aligned committees likely would only dent the bond amount. For instance, Save America had $6 million in cash on hand at the start of the year, according to the latest FEC filings.

A growing number of Republican National Committee members have expressed openness to having the national party cover some of Trump’s legal costs, according to a recent CNBC report. But Trump’s senior campaign adviser, Chris LaCivita, told reporters in February that RNC funds would not be used for his legal battles.

The RNC has previously paid some of Trump’s legal bills. But former party chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told The Washington Post in November 2022 the party would stop directing money toward his legal fees once he officially declared his candidacy in the 2024 presidential race.

With The Associated Press

By Laura Figueroa Hernandez

laura.figueroa@newsday.com@Laura_Figueroa

Laura Figueroa Hernandez is the White House correspondent and previously covered New York City politics and government. She joined Newsday in 2012 after covering state and local politics for The Miami Herald.