Trump posts $175M bond in civil fraud case, then hit with expanded gag order in hush money case

The Associated Press

· Posted: Apr 01, 2024 9:14 PM EDT | Last Updated: 7 hours ago

Donald Trump posted a $175 million US bond in his New York civil fraud case on Monday, as a judge in a separate case hit the former U.S. president with a gag order following online comments he made about the judge's daughter.

The bond halts the collection of the more than $454 million US that Trump owes and prevents the state from seizing his assets while he appeals, according to a court filing.

The bond is essentially a placeholder, meant to guarantee payment if the judgment is upheld. If that happens, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee will have to pay the state the whole sum, which grows with daily interest.

Trump is fighting to overturn a judge's Feb. 16 finding that he lied about his wealth as he fostered the real estate empire that launched him to stardom and the presidency. The trial focused on how Trump's assets were valued on financial statements that went to bankers and insurers to get loans and deals.

WATCH | A day of extreme highs and lows for Trump in court: 

Trump denies any wrongdoing, saying the statements actually low-balled his fortune, came with disclaimers, and weren't taken at face value by the institutions that lent to or insured him.

Under New York law, filing an appeal generally doesn't hold off enforcement of a judgment. But there's an automatic pause — in legalese, a stay — if the person or entity obtains a bond guaranteeing payment of what's owed.

Until the appeals court intervened to lower the required bond, New York Attorney General Letitia James had been poised to initiate efforts to collect the judgment, possibly by seizing some of Trump's marquee properties. 

The company that underwrote the bond is Knight Specialty Insurance, which is part of the Knight Insurance Group. The chair of that company, billionaire Don Hankey, told The Associated Press that both cash and bonds were used as collateral for Trump's appellate bond.

"This is what we do at Knight Insurance, and we're happy to do this for anyone who needs a bond," said Hankey, who is best known in the business world for making high-risk, high-interest loans to car buyers with flawed credit histories. Hankey told The AP he has never met or spoken with Trump.

In addition to the $175 million he had to put up in the New York case, Trump has posted a bond and cash worth more than $97 million to cover money he owes to writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals verdicts in a pair of federal civil trials. Juries found that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s and defamed her when she went public with the allegation in 2019. He denies all the allegations.

Trump lashing out ahead of 1st criminal trial

Meanwhile, in Trump's hush-money criminal case, Judge Juan M. Merchan on Monday expanded the former president's gag order after he assailed the judge's daughter and made a false claim about her on social media last week.

Merchan said his original gag order, issued last Tuesday, did not include members of his family but that Trump's subsequent actions warranted including them.

The judge's daughter, Loren Merchan, is a Democratic political consultant. Prosecutors had urged the judge to clarify or expand his gag order after Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that Loren Merchan "makes money by working to 'Get Trump,"' and wrongly accused her of posting a social media photo showing him behind bars.

The trial, which involves allegations Trump falsified payment records in a scheme to cover up negative stories during his 2016 presidential campaign, is scheduled to begin April 15, the first ever criminal trial involving a former U.S. president.

Trump denies wrongdoing and has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.

Trump's lawyers had fought the gag order and its expansion, arguing that Trump was engaging in protected political campaign speech.

Trump is still free to criticize Merchan and another key figure in the case, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, an elected Democrat who's leading the hush-money prosecution. But under the revised gag order, the D.A.'s family is now off-limits from his rhetoric, too.

Trump faces three other criminal indictments: for federal offences related to his efforts to prevent his 2020 election loss; for racketeering and other charges in Georgia for interfering with the 2020 election administration in that state; and for his handling of classified documents at his properties after leaving office.

Trial dates have yet to be finalized in those three cases due to delays and legal questions being taken up by the Supreme Court.