New York Attorney General Letitia James opposed former President Donald Trump’s request to reduce or delay posting a $454 million bond while appealing a civil fraud judgment against him.
James argued Trump did not fully explore options to post the bond, required to be 120% of the judgment amount or over $557 million.
Trump’s broker said such a large bond is rarely seen for private companies.
James countered billion-dollar bonds have been required before.
Trump called the ruling a form of “mob justice” and claimed it denied his appellate rights.
“Judge Engoron actually wants me to put up Hundreds of Millions of Dollars for the Right to Appeal his ridiculous decision,” Trump wrote. “In other words, he is trying to take my Appellate Rights away from me when I have already won at the Appellate Division, but he refuses to accept their already made decision.”
Constitutional law scholar Jonathan Turley agreed, saying requiring nearly $500 million just for the right to appeal “shocks the conscience” and could deny due process, pushing the issue to the Supreme Court.
“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.’ …[M]any people look at this as a type of almost mob justice,” Turley stated.
“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.”
“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,” Turley said.
James wants the full bond amount to enforce the judgment if Trump loses his appeal.
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