An attorney specializing in white-collar crimes joined “Mornings On 1” Tuesday to offer insights into Donald Trump’s legal challenges to satisfy a $454 million civil fraud judgment against him in New York City.
In a statement Monday, Trump's lawyers revealed that they had approached 30 bond companies through four separate brokers, but obtaining a bond nearing the $500 million mark is a "practical impossibility."
"Here we've got an individual with while a very successful business empire in real estate, it’s relatively, in these terms, small and what the bonding companies have said is we're not going to take real estate as assets to secure this loan," Adam Kaufmann, a former assistant district attorney with the Manhattan DA’s office, said.
Kaufmann said putting up a bond would have required Trump to offer cash, stocks or other assets with a finite value, which the former president does not have. However, Trump does still have the option to appeal the bond amount.
"He's at the intermediate appellate level now, and what he has said to the appellate court is, ‘Stay the enforcement, take some action with regard to the bond so that I can file my appeal and fight out the appeal without having to sell a building in a fire sale or take some other step that's going to drastically impact my business interests,’” Kaufmann said.
He also noted that the appeal process will allow Trump more time to gather the necessary funds.
“The appellate court has a lot of discretion here," Kaufmann said. "So, they can really take a lot of steps to either cut the amount of the bond, say we don't need a bond, we're not going to require that type of undertaking. The civil laws in civil practice laws in New York, you can give the court a lot of authority and discretion.”