A state appellate court swooped in to save Donald Trump on Monday, just as the clock ran out on a half-billion-dollar bond he was due to post to hold off the New York Attorney General from seizing his properties.
In a curtly-worded two-page order that didn’t explain their reason for giving Trump a last-minute grace period, five judges simply said that AG Letitia James can’t yet enforce the $464 million judgment against Trump—as long as Trump can post a much lower bond of $175 million within the next 10 days.
Trump recently revealed that he couldn’t find any surety company willing to be on the hook for the half billion dollars it would take to halt property seizures while the case is on appeal. But this decision vastly lowers the sum required to stop the AG for now.
ADVERTISEMENT
Earlier this month, James already started the process of potentially grabbing Trump’s 212-acre forested estate north of the city when she filed court paperwork in Westchester County that clerks there interpret as a lien on his assets.
However, the AG will now have to wait until April 4 to start employing a local sheriff’s office to actually grab some of the real estate tycoon’s collection of buildings, golf courses, and mansions.
The order was signed by First Judicial Department Appellate Justices Dianne T. Renwick, Anil C. Singh, Lizbeth González, Bahaati E. Pitt-Burke, and Kelly O’Neill Levy, who explained that Trump is only getting this overtime as long as he follows through on his legal appeal of the trial judge’s February decision that conclusively decided he had committed bank fraud.
However, the appellate court refused to do anything about Justice Arthur F. Engoron’s decision to give a former federal judge already overseeing the Trump Organization enhanced powers to take the reins of the family company. Last week, former federal Judge Barbara S. Jones was handed significant authority at Trump’s eponymous firm, something that has riled the former president.
