Half-Billion-Dollar Bond Out of Trump’s Reach

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This just in from the New York Times:

Donald J. Trump’s lawyers disclosed on Monday that he had failed to secure a roughly half-billion dollar bond in his civil fraud case in New York, arguing that doing so was “a practical impossibility.”

The filing, coming one week before the bond is due, raised the prospect that the former president might face a financial crisis unless an appeals court comes to his rescue. Mr. Trump has asked the appeals court to pause the $454 million judgment that a New York judge imposed on Mr. Trump last month, or accept a bond of only $100 million.

The former president has been unable to secure the full bond, his lawyers said in the court filing on Monday, despite “diligent efforts.” Those efforts included approaching about 30 companies, and yet, they said, he has encountered “insurmountable difficulties.”

So about thirty companies consider him too bad a credit risk to lend him that much money. The deadline — after which Letitia James can start seizing Trump’s assets — is March 25.

Axios is reporting that “Trump’s lawyers have asked an appeals court to delay the bond posting until his appeal of the case has run its court.” No way is Letitia James going to agree to that. We’ll see if someone gives him more time to come up with the money. I understand he’s got big mortgages on some of his signature properties, so clearing that much cash may be a reach.

In other news:

The “Plan” seems to be to destroy the November general election and declare Trump the winner. To illlustrate, this happened recently in Arizona:

As the board of supervisors for Arizona’s largest county abruptly ended a meeting late last month, a swarm of people rushed toward the dais, shouting that the members were illegitimate.

The Maricopa County leaders made a beeline for a side door and were swiftly escorted out of the chamber by security guards, who called for backup from the sheriff’s office. After the meeting’s live-feed went dead, a member of the crowd yelled that a “revolution” was underway.

“I’m here today to put you on public notice and to inform you that you are not our elected officials,” said Michelle Klann, co-founder of a pro-Trump group, from a podium she had commandeered. “This is an act of insurrection. Due to all the voter fraud, you have never been formally voted in.” …

…“This was an organized, coordinated attack,” said one top county official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive security matters. “It was a dress rehearsal for the election.”

And, of course, later in the article it said,

In the case of last month’s meeting, the action taken ended peacefully.Outnumbered, the county’s security staff waited for sheriff’s deputies as they calmly ushered out the approximately 20-person crowd. No arrests were made.

They’ve got to start arresting these brownshirts and introducing them to the criminal justice system. This is ridiculous.

Kari Lake and Mike Lindell have petitioned the Supreme Court to declare electronic voting unconstitutional. This is an old suit filled by Lake that has been slapped down vigorously by lower courts, so Lake, joined by Lindell, are taking it to the top. “The MyPillow CEO spent much of last week hyping the lawsuit, making multiple appearances on Steve Bannon’s War Room podcast—in between plugs for his percale sheets—to tease ‘the most explosive evidence ever’ that is ‘going to save this country’ and ‘shock the world,’ The Arizona Republic reported.”

And now that the Trump family is running the RNC, the RNC is opposing early and mail-in voting. Instead of trying to win more Republican voters, the strategy is to suppress Democratic votes.

Last month True the Vote had to admit to a court that it had no evidence for its election fraud claims. But they’re going forward with the program anyway.

Meanwhile, Trump’s rhetoric continues to be unethered to reality.

Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, confused the crowd at an appearance in Vandalia by insisting that Biden had beaten “Barack Hussein Obama” in elections nationally that never took place.

Freewheeling during a speech in which his teleprompters were seemingly disabled by high winds, Trump – a frequent critic of the 81-year-old Biden’s age and mental acuity – struggled to pronounce the words “bite” and “largest”. And he left the crowd scratching their heads over the reference to Obama, whom Biden served as vice-president from 2009 to 2017 before taking the Oval Office from Trump in 2020.

“You know what’s interesting? Joe Biden won against Barack Hussein Obama. Has anyone ever heard of him? Every swing state, Biden beat Obama but in every other state, he got killed,” Trump said.

It’s one thing to mix up a name or a place, but imagining elections that never happened is not a “normal” senior moment thing.

20 thoughts on “Half-Billion-Dollar Bond Out of Trump’s Reach”

  1. Trump pulled exactly the same crap before posting $100 million for the E Jean Carroll bond.

     

  2. The times I'm living in are too interesting.

    About once a week or so I'll see a large pickup truck drive slowly down my street with two giant American flags waving.

    In normal times, I'd think "Okay, there's a patriotic guy" but nowadays?  There goes a trump fan.

    By the way, I suspect this is the same guy who I used to see driving around with a giant confederate flag waving from the back of his truck.

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  3. Why is it that the "Don't Tread On Me" people are the ones who are always attempting the treading.

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    • If asked today he would probably say "at least 20 billion".

      Ultra-wealthy man can't get anyone to loan him money and constantly asks for donations – what's wrong with this picture?!?

  5. You'd think by now the officials in Maricopa County, Arizona have seen everything, and would be ready for the crazies who show up with the intention to disrupt an official meeting. The bullies should've been met with armed security and arrested, on the spot. People have got to learn to not be pushed around by bullies, it's as basic as that.

    Do read Timothy Snyder, The Strongman Fantasy. It boggles my mind that a huge chunk of the population needs to have this explained:

    Quite a few Americans like the idea of strongman rule. Why not a dictator who will get things done?

    I lived in Eastern Europe when memories of communism were fresh. I have visited regions in Ukraine where Russia imposed its occupation regime. I have spent decades reading testimonies of people who lived under Nazi or Stalinist rule. I have seen death pits, some old, some freshly dug. And I have friends who have lived under authoritarian regimes, including political prisoners and survivors of torture. Some of the people I trusted most have been assassinated.

    So I think that there is an answer to this question.

    Strongman rule is a fantasy. Essential to it is the idea that a strongman will be your strongman. He won't. In a democracy, elected representatives listen to constituents. We take this for granted, and imagine that a dictator would owe us something. But the vote you cast for him affirms your irrelevance. The whole point is that the strongman owes us nothing. We get abused and we get used to it….

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    • IMO the American public has long been primed for the idea of a strongman by continuous repetition of the phrase "Congressional gridlock"; the strongman is needed to kick asses and get everything straightened out like it oughta be, or so the thinking goes, at least that's how it works in the movies.  Perpetuating gridlock has been a major objective of the GQP party for decades, ensured by the minority rule of the US Senate and aided by the media's reluctance to dig into what's behind the gridlock, too easy to brush it off as "both sides failed to reach an agreement".

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  7. Biden and Obama did actually run against each other in the 2008 primary, but even if you suppose he was talking about that, it still doesn't make any sense.

  8. Your occasional reminder that in 2016 the U.S. (sort of) elected a president to whom no American bank would loan money.

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  9. They check your credit rating for almost everything as it is a measure of trust.  Can you be trusted?  With Trump we should know by now that in general he can't be trusted.  It took Mike Pence a long time, but even he found out that the Donald operates on the 'let no good deed go unpunished theory'.  He demands absolute loyalty yet to him it is taken as a sign of a weak person that can be taken advantage of.  

    At this point it seems the business community has caught on to Trump's facade.  He is all about the appearance of rich and getting his name on buildings that make him look wealthy.  His real worth is quite hidden, so much so that he was found guilty of fraud.

    The judge cited "a room full of evidence" that this was true.  

    I guess the perception of wealth is not considered as good collateral, and no accountant can see through the tangled web of lies that is the family business.  No accountant anyone could trust at least.  Is it even possible to have a negative credit rating?  How low do they go? 

    • Harry says "the mask is off". I've always had a reluctance to accept the premise that Judge Cannon was working overtime on Trump's behalf. I've had reservations about whether it was her inexperience acting out of caution that caused her to be overuled twice by the circuit court. But after listening to all the legal scholars it's become crystal clear she's working on Trump's behalf. I agree her latest ruling clearly shows her mask is off.  I have enough faith to believe that Jack Smith and his team are wise to her game and will make the right moves to get her bounced as the judge in the documents case. She's not as clever as she thinks she is.

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    • I don't have any inside information. Trump has been ranting like he really does not have any way of covering the bond. On the other hand, Trump wants to convince (or maybe fool) the appellate court that a $100 M bond = a $400 M bond.) If he comes up with the money on the 24th, it was all a con that didn't play out.

      Jack Smith needs to bring his A game in a motion to have Cannon removed. The most recent ploy was designed to not-quite go over the top but not even Cannon knows the limits of the 11th circuit judges who would decide. If granted, the motion would create a delay (surprise, surprise) but it would guarantee a trial. I agree with Harry that Cannon might dismiss charges after the trial starts which would be game over. If Cannon lets the jury decide, I think Trump will be convicted – hands down. If she's as corrupt as I think, she's not gonna leave the outcome to chance (or the law.) 

  11. Michelle Klann, co-founder of a pro-Trump group

    You'd be laughed out of every publisher's office if you wrote this as fiction.
    The other co-founder, “Adolf Nazi”, was unavailable for comment.

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  13. 1) My question is: Why would anyone who has been paying attention believe TFG when he says (and his lawyers say) that he doesn't have the ability to pay the appeal bond as required by NY law?  He lies about everything.  Maybe he just can't stand the idea of putting up the money because he knows his appeal will fail. And then he can't drag things out during the collection proceedings that would ensue.

    2) Barbara McQuade just pointed out that nobody has a constitutional right to an appeal. And nobody has a due process right to an appeal. It's an option that has criteria and conditions. No appellate court is required to take any appeal request. So the whiner in chief is whining.

    3) I actually think that he doesn't have the money to get the bond or the unencumbered assets to go into escrow pending appeal. TFG's org is a house of cards. He's leveraged up to the limit on every property he owns. His claims about being "worth over a billion" is based on his own ridiculously exaggerated estimates of the market values of his properties, and he conveniently neglects to include the "minor" issue of the debt on those properties. He's the Wizard of Oz or the emperor with no clothes. And the reason he's so terrified of what's going on here is that as this whole thing unfolds, regardless of any delays he gets, his lack of clothing is going to be revealed to the world. 

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    • The lever gives one quite a mechanical advantage, and leverage gives one a wealth advantage of sorts.  I knew a person who liked to use other people's money to gamble with until all his creditors discovered they all had been given his one golf cart as collateral.  At this point the lever transfers a tremendous disadvantage.  

      One can only speculate at this point, but I think all the evidence leads to the conclusion that Trump is seriously overleveraged as you implied.  

      I never learned the rest of the story about the overleveraged golf-cart. I can only assume it was quite a sad one.  The Trump saga bodes a tragedy of epic if not Titanic proportions. There will not be nearly enough lifeboats.  

  14. Does the Federalist Society support the idea of the rule of law?

    Judge Cannon joined the Federalist Society at some point. I don't know if they had anything to do with her getting the judge nomination from TFG. I think the Federalist Society wants TFG to get elected so that Alito and Thomas can resign and be replaced by F.S. justices.

    If the Federalist Society doesn't support the rule of law then we are in bigger trouble than if they do. Full on corrupt autocracy is worse than rule of law controlled by the ruling class, although the latter is also extremely bad.

    Is Judge Cannon trying to get the Circuit Court to boot her off the case? There's no way she can recuse herself without admitting to corruption. She's in way over her head on a case that I don't think she wanted to get. 

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