Trump New York fraud bond cut to $175 million in appeal

A New York appeals court on Monday paused for 10 days a massive civil business fraud judgment against Donald Trump — and sharply reduced to $175 million the bond amount he will have to post to obtain a longer stay of that award.

The ruling came the same day New York Attorney General Letitia James could start seizing the former president‘s real estate assets and bank accounts to satisfy a $454 million and rising judgment after he failed to obtain an appeal bond.

James is prevented from doing so — for now — due to the order from the five-judge panel in Manhattan Supreme Court’s appellate division, which did not give a reason for cutting the bond threshold by about 60%.

“We’ll post whatever is necessary, whether it be cash or security or bonds” Trump told reporters after leaving a hearing in the same court, where his trial on criminal business records charges related to a hush money payment to a porn star was set for April 15.

Earlier Monday, he had raged in a Truth Social post that he might be forced to sell his “babies” — real estate assets — to satisfy the judgment while he appeals a judge’s verdict that he and other defendants for years fraudulently inflated the stated value of properties while obtaining loans.

Trump’s lawyers previously asked that the appeal bond in the case be set at $100 million.

In a court filing last week, those attorneys said it was “impossible” for Trump to get an appeal bond for $454 million after having approached more than 30 surety companies without success. Trump’s two adults sons, his company the Trump Organization and two executives who all were co-defendants in the case owe a total of about $10 million in additional damages.

None of the surety companies were willing to write a $464 million bond without Trump posting cash or some other liquid asset, the attorneys wrote in their filing with the appellate division.

Because of the size of the fraud judgment, the companies insisted that Trump show “cash reserves approaching $1 billion,” according to his lawyers. But neither Trump nor the Trump Organization company has that amount of cash on hand, the filing said.

While Monday’s appeals court ruling lowers the size of the required appeal bond, it does not reduce the size of the judgment in the case, which resulted from a lawsuit filed by James.

If Trump and the other…