A New York appeals court this morning cut the amount of the bond that Donald Trump must post in the fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James to $175 million from the $464 million that would have covered the full judgment against Trump and the other defendants. Trump had argued that if he was forced to post a bond or make a cash payment to a court for the full amount he would be forced to sell real estate holdings at a loss. The court also gave Trump an additional 10 days to post the reduced bond amount. Today was the original deadline for Trump to post the $464 million bond. If he failed to do so, James could have started action to seize assets of Trump and the other defendants. In addition to Trump, a number of Trump companies and his sons Eric and Donald Jr. along with former Trump Organization CFO Allen Weisselberg were found guilty of fraud.
In a different case, Judge Juan Merchan ruled today that Trump’s trial involving making a hush money payment to porn star Stormy Daniels will begin on April 15. As Trump entered Merchan’s Manhattan courtroom for a hearing in the case this morning he said, “This is a witch hunt, it’s a hoax, thank you.” The trial was scheduled to begin today but New York District Attorney Alvin Bragg had agreed to delay the trial by 30 days because the Justice Department recently turned over to his office documents it had not previously released that needed to be shared with Trump’s defense team.
When Merchan opened today’s hush money hearing he explained that Trump’s attorneys have asked to dismiss the case, and prevent Stormy Daniels and former Trump Attorney Michael Cohen from testifying. Trump’s attorneys also want to delay the start of the trial by at least 90 days. Trump’s attorneys accused DA Bragg of trying to hide the truth and also trying to interfere with the 2024 Presidential Election. A prosecutor from Bragg’s office told the judge that while the Justice Department recently turned over tens of thousands of pages of material, the number of new documents that are relevant to the case actually is quite small, perhaps 300 pages.
