Former President Donald Trump said a New York judge’s requirement that he post a $454 million bond to appeal a civil fraud ruling against him could force the fire sale of his real estate assets.
The ruling by Attorney General Letitia James aims to effectively bankrupt Trump.
Thirty surety companies rejected real estate as collateral for the bond.
If Trump cannot post the bond by March 25, James could move to freeze his bank accounts and properties.
Trump said he would be forced to sell assets at “fire sale prices” just to exercise his appellate rights after already winning at an intermediate court.
“Nobody has ever heard of anything like this before. I would 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,” Trump said. “Does that make sense? WITCH HUNT. ELECTION INTERFERENCE.”
Constitutional law expert Jonathan Turley called it a form of “mob justice” that denies due process, and said Trump’s team may appeal all the way to the Supreme Court on grounds punitive damages cannot deny a fair hearing.
“His position is in order to get any other judge to look at what I’ve done to you, you’ve got to come up with basically a half a billion dollars just to appeal. It’s like a judge saying, ‘I’m going to take your house away, but you can appeal my decision. You just have to sell your house in order to do it.’ Many people look at this as a type of almost mob justice,” Turley stated.
Turley said requiring such a large bond just for appellate review “shocks the conscience.”
“And this could end up going beyond the New York system. They [Trump’s team] could appeal this all the way to the Supreme Court. On occasion, the Supreme Court has intervened in state actions, for example, on punitive damages, and so that points damages can become so high they deny someone due process of law. This is falling into that extreme category, in my view. I find it appalling.”
Turley added, “It shocks the conscience that you have to pony up this type of money just to get someone to look at what you believe, and I believe, is an excessive ruling by this judge.”
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