Donald Trump Loses Fraud Case; Must Pay $400M+
After months in the courtroom, Judge Engoron has found Donald Trump guilty of fraud, and has hit him with a $450M fine as a result. The judge found $354M in damages from fraud from the various properties, and added the interest that started accruing from different points for the different properties of about $100M more, bringing us to a grand total of $450M. NY Attorney General Letitia James, whose office brought the case, said that the amount "will continue to increase every single day" until the full amount is paid.
"Donald Trump is finally facing accountability for his lying, cheating, and staggering fraud," James’ statement reads. "Because no matter how big, rich, or powerful you think you are, no one is above the law."
Donald Trump's Lawyer Says Its 'Practically Impossible' For Trump To Pay Up
Now that Trump must pay the fine, he's having trouble finding a bonding company that will lend him the money. "The amount of the judgment, with interest, exceeds $464 million, and very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching that magnitude," Trump's lawyers wrote.
Insurance broker Gary Giulietti, who testified for Trump during the trial, even said that securing a bond in the full amount "is a practical impossibility," which Trump then repeated on Monday in a post to his Truth Social account.
He claimed that the size of the bond is "unConstitutional, un-American, unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine. The Bonding Companies have never heard of such a bond, of this size, before, nor do they have the ability to post such a bond, even if they wanted to."
It seems that Trump is running short on cash, especially after posting a $91.6M bond earlier this month as part of his appeal in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case. What he will do to pay his dues remain to be seen.