1 of 3 | Former President Donald Trump enters the courtroom in his civil fraud trial in New York City in January. File Photo by Louis Lanzano/UPI |
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March 21 (UPI) -- Attorneys for Donald Trump called proposals from the New York attorney general to satisfy his bond judgment for civil fraud "impractical and unjust" in a filing on Thursday.
Dennis Fan, senior assistant solicitor general to the attorney general, suggested in a filing on Wednesday that Trump could seek the services of multiple agencies to combine funds and pay the $454 million bond. Trump's attorneys say this would require the former president to post more than $500 million in collateral.
"As explained in defendants' affirmations, those separate bonds would still require a total collateralization of cash or cash equivalents in excess of $557 million, regardless of how many sureties were involved," the filing reads.
The filing again makes the argument that the penalty placed on Trump for being found guilty of civil fraud is excessive. Trump, who is running for re-election, has attempted to delay enforcement of the judgment to no avail. Defense attorneys say Trump is being pushed to hold a "fire sale" of his assets, likely forced to sell them below their market value.
Attorney General Letitia James has said she will take legal measures to secure the $454 million judgment, including seizing Trump's properties. In Fan's filing on Wednesday, he writes that this would be the alternative to Trump selling assets to come up with collateral.
"Defendants fail to propose a serious alternative to fully secure the judgment," he wrote. "If defendants were truly unable to provide an undertaking, they at a minimum should have consented to have their real-estate interests held by Supreme Court to satisfy the judgment."
Trump's team pushed back on this idea, as well.
"The suggestion is both impractical and unjust. The attorney general cites no New York case law to support this contention," they wrote. "In any event, from the perspective of risk, the attorney general's proposal of a 'court-appointed officer' to 'hold real estate' is functionally equivalent to what Supreme Court has already imposed through the requirement of a court-appointed monitor to oversee defendants' business operations."
Trump and the Trump Organization, led by his sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, were found guilty of fraudulently inflating the values of assets to secure hundreds of millions in capital gains. Judge Arthur Engoron barred Donald Trump from doing business in New York for three years, along with the financial penalty. He has until Monday to pay the $454 million bond in full.
His sons are barred from doing business in New York for two years.
