Donald Trump just royally screwed up his attempt at coming up with bond in his fraud verdict
Donald Trump has just a few days to come up with a bond in the range of $83 million in his E. Jean Carroll verdict, and a few weeks to come up with the bond in the range of half a billion dollars in his New York civil fraud verdict. If he can’t post bond by those deadlines, the collections process will immediately begin, even if he tries to appeal.
Trump’s attorneys have made filings in both cases, aimed at convincing the courts to allow him to post a small fraction of the bond that’s usually required. The filing in the fraud case basically says that Trump can’t afford to pay the full bond, and that he shouldn’t have to sell off properties just to come up with the cash, because it would cause “irreparable harm” to him.
This tactic is extremely unlikely to work; it’s just that Trump’s attorneys don’t have anything else to try. But now Trump himself is speaking up about it, and let’s just say that he’s making a complete mess of things. Trump went on TV and suggested that he does have enough money on hand to post the full bond.
While cable news is far from the real world, Trump’s words on TV can (and likely will) be used against him in court. The judges in both cases, along with Letitia James and E. Jean Carroll, will now be able to argue that Trump shouldn’t be allowed to post a reduced bond because he just said he can afford the full bond.
In other words, either because Trump’s fragile ego can’t publicly admit that he’s unable to afford the bond, or because Trump is just too senile to stick to what his legal team told him to say, he just royally screwed up his attorneys’ attempt at helping him post bond. The attempt wasn’t going to work anyway, but now it definitely won’t work. Trump’s mouth continues to be the biggest thing working against him.
