NY times is reporting
Donald Trump, who is urgently seeking a cash infusion to aid his presidential campaign, met on Sunday in Palm Beach, Fla., with Elon Musk, one of the world’s richest men, and a few wealthy Republican donors, according to three people briefed on the meeting who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe a private discussion.
Mr. Trump and his team are working to find additional major donors to shore up his finances as he heads into an expected general election against President Biden. Mr. Trump has praised Mr. Musk to allies and hopes to have a one-on-one meeting with the billionaire soon, according to a person who has discussed the matter with Mr. Trump.
NY Times and NBC reporting. Should be everywhere soon.
This is another set of charges for the NJ Senator
Trump was on Fox this morning and was asked if he could secure the money for his court judgements. He said he had plenty of money and he was not worried about it. I can't find a clip on the Fox website, but he was talking to Brian Kilmeade.
I wonder if this means Trump was able to secure a loan. Because last week Trump's lawyers told the judge he needed to secure a loan or sell assets. Trump's court documents from this weekend indicate he will not be putting up the money himself, but instead he will be seeking a bond
Big Week coming up. We should know some of these answers in a few days. Trump has two large judgements that he needs to "STAY" while he appeals and one deadline is this week
The "stay of the judgment" means put it on pause while he appeals. Without the stay, you can still appeal, but it means the other party can begin collecting on the judgement. (In NY state, you have an automatic 30 day stay, but to pause it beyond that, you need to put to put the money into escrow. You need to put up 110% of the judgement.)
If you have all the money, you can write a check. Or you can go to surety company and get a bond which is like a bail bond, you work with a bonding company to put up the whole amount and you pay a fee. This would require a lot of collateral and some of that collateral might need to be liquid. Hence, Trump asking about loans.
First Case The E Jean Carroll judgement is coming up first. Over the weekend Trump argued for a stay until his post trial motions are ruled on and there may be a ruling on that today. Here's the court document
Trump asked for two things. **First **he wanted a stay with no bond at all.
Second he wants to put up about 25% of the required bond.
even if the Court does not grant an unsecured stay during this period when the risk to the plaintiff is “minimal, it should, at very least, grant a partially secured stay in an amount substantially reduced from the $91.63 million otherwise required... to $24.475 million
This court documents also seem to indicate Trump is looking to work with a bond company rather than put up the money himself.
Denying a Stay Will Inflict Irreparable Harm. Carroll argues that monetary injuries are not irreparable harm “because money can always be returned.” But Carroll concedes that President Trump will “incur fees often associated with obtaining a bond,” which are considerable for a bond this size.
They later mention
he ‘corporate guaranty fee associated with the supersedeas bond premiums”)
There are a variety of factors that go into it, but generally speaking, the cost for an appeal bond can range from 0.30% to 4%.
It depends on your collateral.
Real estate is the most expensive collateral option, typically costing 4% of the appeal bond amount per year.
This is why Trump may still seek a loan even if he is going with a bonding company.
Trump asked the judge to rule by yesterday, but the judge did not.
If a stay is not granted, Trump has to put up the money later this week. Friday I believe.
Second Case Interestingly Trump went to court on the second case first and the judge already ruled on his motion.
In that case Trump also asked for a stay of the judgement and also wanted to put up less than the standard amount to guarantee a stay, in this case he offered $100 million about 1/4 the total amount of $464 million.
Trump's arguments begin way down in the document, look for EXHIBIT AA
Significantly, Trump's lawyers mentioned Trump would need to raise capital and without a modification of the judgement, Trump would have to sell properties.
In the absence of a stay on the terms herein outlined, properties would likely need to be sold to raise capital under exigent circumstances,
and
As set forth above, by blocking Appellants from borrowing and otherwise conducting their business, Supreme Court’s order would make it impossible for Appellants to post a bond in the full amount of the Judgment.
So Trump has told the courts he would need to raise capital and wants to do this through a loan.
The judge denied Trump's offer of paying only $100 million, but did pause the ban on getting loans from banks in NY. Trump has until March 25 to stay the judgment.
Here is the information document from court.
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/24455201-allen-weisselberg-superior-court-information
Summary Ex-Trump CFO pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury in court today.
Perjury occurred during deposition in the NY fraud trial regarding when he knew the true size of Trump's apartment.
Recommended sentence is 5 months.
Sentencing will be April 10th.
Supreme Court rules, 9-0, that Trump can’t be removed from ballot under 14th Amendment: “Because the Constitution makes Congress, rather than the States, responsible for enforcing Section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates, we reverse.”
https://x.com/jkbjournalist/status/1763241211370865044?s=20
julie k. brown @jkbjournalist Breaking: Fla Gov DeSantis signs bill for the release of Palm Beach 2008 Jeffrey Epstein grand jury records, calling the case a “black eye” on the criminal justice system.
Julie Brown is the reported whose series on the sweetheart deal given to Epstein in Florida led directly to his conviction in the NY case
In court papers today Trump's lawyers asked the judge to "stay the judgement" while Trump appeals the case.
Stay the judgment means you don't pay the penalty. However, this usually means putting up what's known as an undertaking for the amount of the judgment and that money is held in escrow while you appeal.
Trump is asking the judge to put up a partial amount of the judgment, because otherwise Trump would suffer an.irreparable harm. They are asking to put up a bond of 100 million instead of the full judgment as the undertaking. Trump's lawyers say to put up the full amount. Trump would need to sell property.
Irreparable Harm Inheres to Appellants from Any Forced Sale of Properties In the absence of a stay on the terms herein outlined, properties would likely need to be sold to raise capital under exigent circumstances, and there would be no way to recover any property sold following a successful appeal and no means to recover the resulting financial losses
https://twitter.com/innercitypress/status/1761228978793202084?t=UZzQlzeIA-57irgPEcwHeA&s=19
E. Jean Carroll case
Trump's lawyer asked the judge to pause the judgment against him or if the judge is not paused then she is requesting that money required for the appeal be reduced.
"substantially"
On February 23 Habba filed a request to "Stay Execution of the Judgment Pending Disposition of the Post-Trial Motions," on the following grounds:
An Unsecured Stay of Execution Is Appropriate Where, as Here, Post-Trial Motions Are Substantially Likely to Affect the Amount of the Judgment.....
B. In the Alternative, the Court Should Authorize a Substantially Reduced Bond
and Trump still has more than 30 days because the judge has not officially entered the judgement.
EDIT 30 DAYS from TODAY Judge has denied a stay in an email to Trump's lawyer and enter the judgement to the county clerk in the system. https://twitter.com/KlasfeldReports/status/1760720419328274562?t=VhUHumLjMAW8NyzTo-pgsQ&s=19
So I think that means Monday, March 25th and I suspect Trump won't file anything before that date.
Trump has vowed to appeal and the deadline will be 30 days from when Engoron formally enters the judgment, which hadn't happened by Wednesday.
Appeals court can set bond amount.
To avoid paying the judgment while the appeal is argued, Trump will have to ask the appeals court to pause Engoron's order. Typically, the appeals court would require a bond to assure Trump would pay if he loses. But the appeals court could ask for a bond that is a fraction of the judgment because of the lack of traditional victims in the fraud case.
....
....without a traditional victim in the fraud case, the appeals court has broad discretion to set a bond at perhaps a fraction of the total judgment.
If Trump asks to post less than the full judgment, Zauderer said a five-judge panel will consider the request. The panel will collect written arguments, giving Trump and attorney general's office each several days to file, and then typically reach a decision in about three weeks. The panel could set bond anywhere from zero to the full judgment.
“The court would have discretion," Zauderer said. “That would then stop enforcement while the appeal was pending.”
WTF just happened with these court rulings? And what happens next?
- Trump can appeal, but he has to come up with the money.
According to Newsmax https://www.newsmax.com/politics/trump-verdict-civil/2024/02/16/id/1153955/
Trump is expected to appeal the ruling and penalties, but meanwhile the sum is essentially due immediately.
- His lawyer say he has 30 days to make the payment.
"The case raises serious legal and constitutional questions regarding 'fraud' claims/findings without any actual fraud," Chris Kise, Trump's principal lawyer in the case. ....Kise told Newsweek the appeal's filing "will fall within the 30-day clock" allowed by the court, though he did give a specific date.
- Trump can get someone to put up a bond on his behalf
Rather than the paying the entire sum, Trump could obtain a bond. But garnering a bond requires an upfront payment of usually around 10 percent, which Trump would not get back even in a successful appeal
- So essentially the clock is ticking. For Trump to "stay" the monetary judgements against him, he has 30 days from the date of the judgement to put up the money or else liens can be put on his assets.
This is going to happen fast.
The E Jean Carroll case was decided on Jan 26. So within a week, Trump will have to put up money for appeal. We will see if he writes a check or gets a bond. For the second case it will be around March 24th.
- This is a lot of money even for someone as rich as Trump.
It's not only the judgements, but the interest on the judgements. The AP says this totals $540 million dollars.
- Trump has a lot of assets, but it's an open question how much cash he has. If you own a billion dollar building. And you owe some one 50 million, it doesn't mean you can just write a check. If you had no liquid assets, you might need to take a loan on the building or sell the bulding.
Forbes which is no fan of Trump said in September he has
Cash & Personal Assets: $640 million FORBES ESTIMATES AS OF SEPTEMBER 2023
426 million was said to be cash.
Trump of course has other debts. A lot of the buildings he owns still have loans on them. Others have zero debt. This is what Forbes estimates are active loans
Mar A Lago 33 million US Golf Clubs 62 million Doral 125 million 1290 Ave of the Americas 950 million (Trump owns 30%) Trump Park Ave 101 million 40 Wall Street 125 million Trump Tower 100 million Trump Plaza 12 million
- Here's what Trump says. These are the liabilities Trump listed on this financial disclosure report to the government. See part 8 of this. https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/23778223-read-donald-trumps-personal-financial-disclosure-report-part-2
they are no specific. but for the loans that are not paid off. It seems like 4 loans of $100 million or more. And 5 loans between 5 million and 25 million. Two of these mature in 2024. Anyone know how to read these? I'm not sure how much of these are paid off.
Here's part one of his financial forms including assets
Here's language from the NY State Law website on the money you have to put up to appeal. https://www.nycourts.gov/courthelp/AfterCourt/appealsBasics.shtml#:~:text=You%20may%20have%20to%20pay,on%20the%20Appellate%20Court's%20calendar.
Asking the Court to Stop Enforcement of the Judgment: Filing a Notice of Appeal does not stop or stay the winning side from taking steps to collect or enforce the judgment from the lower court. To put the collection on hold, you may have to ask the court for a stay. You may have to pay an amount of money equal to the judgment amount, called an undertaking, to the court while the appeal is being decided. See How to Ask the Court for Something.