Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to the media as he arrives for a trial in a Manhattan court in a civil fraud case brought by Attorney General Letitia James against him, his adult sons, in New York City, U.S., on October 4 , brought by the Trump Organization and others, 2023.
Fresh Mike | Reuters
Donald Trump should have pledged real estate he owns as security against a $464 million corporate fraud verdict if he was “truly unable” to obtain an appeal bond of that amount, the New explained York Attorney General’s Office on Wednesday in a court filing.
Trump also failed this week to provide evidence to support his claim that it would be “impossible” to obtain an appeal bond by using the properties as collateral, an attorney for AG Letitia James wrote.
“Defendants provide no documentary evidence to establish exactly which properties they offered to potential underwriters,” Dennis Fan, senior attorney general in the AG’s office, wrote in the filing to Manhattan Appeals Court judges.
They also did not report “on what terms this property was offered or why the bail bondsmen were unwilling to accept the assets.”
The office made these arguments as it asked the justices to reject Trump’s request not to allow his massive fraud verdict to expire.
Unless a court intervenes, James could begin collecting the judgment – by seizing Trump’s assets – as early as next week.
One reason why insurers pay deposits Fan might have rejected offers of Trump’s properties as collateral because he feared the properties would prove to be less valuable than Trump claimed.
But even this line of thinking assumes that Trump actually made reasonable offers to potential bond underwriters.
Neither Trump’s lawyers nor his bond broker have yet provided clear evidence of the offers made and the subsequent rejections.
Instead, the report on Trump’s bond fight came entirely from two people who Fan said have serious conflicts of interest and credibility issues.
Gary Giulietti, the bond broker who claimed 30 different insurers turned him down, is also a personal friend of Trump who has a long-standing business relationship with the Trump Organization.
Not only that, Fan said, but Giulietti also served as an expert witness for Trump in the same fraud case that Trump now plans to appeal.
The other person who backed up Giulietti’s claims to the appeals judges was Alan Garten, a lawyer for the Trump Organization.
Garten told the court that Trump faced “insurmountable” difficulties in obtaining an appeals clause.
Fan argued that Garten was conflicted because he worked for Trump and that Garten was “personally implicated in the fraudulent and illegal conduct” at the heart of Trump’s fraud case.
Garten denied this on Wednesday. “The court has found nothing of the sort, the AG’s statement is frivolous and completely untrue,” he said in a statement to NBC News.
Fan also noted that Garten’s claims about how hard it was to get a bond were based mostly on things Giulietti had said.
This is breaking news. Please check back for updates.
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2024-03-20 17:41:54
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