Trump unable to make $454m bond in civil fraud case, say his lawyers
Donald Trump has been unable to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454m New York civil fraud judgment against him, his lawyers said in a court filing.
The filing on Monday states that obtaining a bond has proven to be “a practical impossibility”, adding that “diligent” efforts made to secure a bond have included “approaching about 30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers” and “countless hours negotiating with one of the largest insurance companies in the world.”
These efforts have proven that “obtaining an appeal bond in the full amount” of the judgment “is not possible under the circumstances presented,” the filing states.
With interest, Trump owes $456.8m. In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe $467.3m, according to AP. To obtain a bond, they would be required to post collateral worth $557m, Trump’s lawyers said.
Key events
Nick Robins-Early
The supreme court heard oral arguments Monday in a case that could upend the federal government’s relationship with social media companies and with lies online.
Plaintiffs in Murthy v Missouri argue that White House requests to take down coronavirus misinformation on Twitter and Facebook constitute illegal censorship in violation the first amendment.
The arguments began with Brian Fletcher, the principal deputy solicitor general of the justice department, making an argument that none of the government’s communications crossed the line from persuasion into coercion. He also pushed back against descriptions of events in lower court rulings, stating that they were misleading or included quotations taken out of context. Fletcher said:
When the government persuades a private party not to distribute or promote someone else’s speech, that’s not censorship, that’s persuading a private party to do something that they’re lawfully entitled to do.
The justices, most prominently conservatives Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas, questioned Fletcher on where exactly the line is between threatening companies and persuading them. Fletcher defended the government’s actions as part of its broader ability to try and reduce public harm. Fletcher said:
The government can encourage parents to monitor their children’s cell phone usage or internet companies to watch out for child pornography on their platforms, even if the fourth amendment would prevent the government from doing that directly.
Joe Biden’s phone conversation with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu was “businesslike”, the White House’s national security adviser Jake Sullivan said.
During the call, the president warned Netanyahu that an Israeli military operation in Rafah would deepen anarchy in Gaza, Sullivan told reporters.
Biden also questioned Netanyahu over a lack of a “coherent and sustainable strategy’ to defeat Hamas, “rather than Israel go smashing into Rafah,” he said.
The two leaders agreed teams from each side would meet in Washington to discuss a prospective Rafah operation, Sullivan said. This meeting could take place this week or next, he said, adding that no Rafah operation would proceed before the talks.
Donald Trump is expected to enlist Paul Manafort, his former 2016 presidential campaign manager who he pardoned, as a campaign adviser later this year, according to multiple reports.
Manafort has been in discussions for several months with Trump’s team to help with the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, although his potential role at the party’s convention has not been decided, the Washington Post reported.
Manafort was sentenced to more than seven years in prison as part of special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation into Trump’s associates. Trump pardoned him in the final weeks of his presidency.
Netanyahu to send Israeli officials to Washington to discuss Rafah, says White House
Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has told Joe Biden that he will send a team of Israeli officials to Washington to discuss a potential military operation in Rafah in southern Gaza, the White House said.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters:
We’ve arrived at a point where each side has been making clear to the other its perspective.
Biden and Netanyahu spoke by phone earlier on Monday, their first known interaction in more than a month as the rift deepens between the two leaders over the war in Gaza.
Martin Pengelly
The son of the late US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg called a decision to give Elon Musk and Rupert Murdoch an award named for his mother a “desecration” of her memory.
Discussing protests made to the Dwight D Opperman Foundation, which gives the Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Woman of Leadership award, James Ginsburg told CNN:
I don’t want to speak to what our other plans might be if the foundation doesn’t see the wisdom of desisting and ending this desecration of my mother’s memory. But I will say that we will continue to fight this.
The second woman appointed to the US supreme court, Ruth Bader Ginsburg spent 27 years as a justice, becoming a hero to American liberals. She died aged 87 in September 2020 and was replaced by Amy Coney Barrett, the third conservative justice installed by Donald Trump.
Ginsburg helped establish the award colloquially known as the RBG, saying it would honour “women who have strived to make the world a better place for generations that follow their own, women who exemplify human qualities of empathy and humility, and who care about the dignity and well being of all who dwell on planet Earth”.
Previous recipients have included Barbra Streisand and Queen Elizabeth II. Last week, the Dwight D Opperman Foundation announced a five-strong list it said was chosen from “a slate of dozens of diverse nominees” but which included just one woman.
Former Georgia lieutenant governor Geoff Duncan said he is withdrawing his name from consideration for a third-party 2024 presidential ticket with the centrist group No Labels.
“After careful deliberation, I have withdrawn my name from consideration for the No Labels presidential ticket,” Duncan said in a statement on Monday.
It was an honor to be approached, and I am grateful to all those who are engaged in good-faith efforts to offer Americans a better choice than the Trump vs. Biden re-match.
No Labels has been struggling to field a so-called “unity ticket” to provide voters with an alternative to Donald Trump and Joe Biden
Duncan becomes the latest lawmaker to turn down No Labels, a list that includes Republican former presidential candidate Nikki Haley, Republican former Maryland governor Larry Hogan, and Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema.
Maanvi Singh
California’s governor Gavin Newsom has postponed his State of the State address while his signature mental health and homelessness initiative Prop 1 remains too close to call.
With more than 95% of votes counted, the statewide ballot measure that would restructure mental health funding in the state is slightly ahead – but still too close to call. The measure, which has faltered despite no funded opposition, is a key piece of the governor’s plan to address both the mental health and homelessness crises. It would redirect some of the state’s mental health funds toward housing and residential treatment facilities for severe mental health and substance use disorders, and raise billions via a bond.
Fiscal conservatives have balked at the measure’s borrowing costs – but Prop 1 was also criticized by local officials, because it would defund community-based programs, and disability rights advocates, who object to its funding of locked-door psychiatric institutions and involuntary treatment.
Still, while healthcare companies, and unions backing the state’s prison guards and construction workers, have funded a $14.3m campaign to sell the measure to voters, opponents had only raised $1,000. The “no” campaign conceded last week, but there’s still a chance the measure could fail.
The governor was banking on Prop 1 to fund broader plans to combat homelessness, which include the Care court program, which will empower families, providers and outreach workers to ask state courts to compel people with certain severe mental disorders into treatment programs, and SB43, which expands the group of people who can be placed in involuntary psychiatric holds or forced to undergo medical treatment.
Ahead of the election on 6 March, Newsom had been confident – telling the LA Times, “I think it’s going to win overwhelmingly.”
Now, the governor’s federal PAC, Campaign for Democracy, is seeking volunteers to help Democrats who have had their ballots rejected, for reasons such as forgetting to include a signature, to help them correct issues and have votes counted.
Joanna Walters
Donald Trump’s failure to secure a bond to cover a $454m judgment in his New York civil fraud case means he is inching closer to the possibility of having his properties seized, Reuters reports.
The former president must either pay the sum out of his own pocket or post a bond to stave off the state’s seizure while he appeals the judgment against him last month for misstating property values to dupe lenders and insurers.
Trump’s lawyers said on Monday that they’d approached 30 companies without success to make the bond.
A bonding company would be on the hook for any payout if Trump loses his appeal and proves unable to pay.
He must post cash or a bond within 30 days of the judge’s formal entry of the order on February 23 or risk the state seizing some of the Trump Organization’s assets to ensure New York attorney general Letitia James, who brought the civil case, can collect. Thirty days end on March 25.
In a court filing, Trump’s lawyers urged a mid-level state appeals court to delay enforcement of the judgment, arguing the amount was excessive. It was unclear when the court, known as the appellate division, would rule.
The Guardian adds that last month James said she will seize Trump’s assets if he doesn’t pay.
US vice president Kamala Harris kicked off an event at the White House a little earlier to mark women’s history month.
She was accompanied by Jill Biden and a dude who loves to describe himself as “Jill Biden’s husband”, as well as a dude who’s the Veep’s husband, and Maria Shriver, who is founder of the nonprofit organization the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement as well as the former first lady of California and a member of the Kennedy clan.
Harris said that she’s visited 20 countries in her current position and firmly believes that the strength of a democracy is measured by how a nation values the women of its population, especially in the economy.
She reminded those gathered, to huge cheers, that her scientist mother was in a tiny minority as a woman graduating in her day in such a discipline and yet her daughter is now the first female vice president of the US.
Harris said that in the US, women carry around two thirds of student debt. She ran through a list of what the Biden administration is doing for women. But her key role in this election is to persuade voters to reelect the Biden-Harris team as the only path to protecting reproductive rights. She has been out on the trail railing against the conservative-leaning Supreme Court, which tilted far to the right under Donald Trump, overturning in the national right to abortion afforded under Roe v Wade and the ongoing hard right assault from many angles on reproductive choice.
“In states across our nation we are witnessing a full on attack against hard-fought, hard-won freedoms and rights, including the right of women to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do,” she said at the White House a little earlier today.
Joanna Walters
Reactions are bubbling up to the news that Donald Trump has been unable to obtain a bond to secure the $464m New York civil fraud judgment against him.
Film producer and political commentator Keith Boykin metaphorically shakes his head at Republicans being prepared to nominate Trump for a second term when he can’t pay his fines.
Donald Trump asked 30 underwriters to put up his $464 million bond payment, but he couldn’t find one.
Yet Republicans chose a man with 6 bankruptcies, 4 criminal indictments, and more than a half billion dollars of debt as their presidential nominee.pic.twitter.com/Y1DNUSdffw
— Keith Boykin (@keithboykin) March 18, 2024
Actor Rob Reiner is even plainer.
There’s a reason why Trump can’t secure a loan to post a bond for the 454 million dollar judgment against him for Fraud. Because every bank in the world knows he’s a Fraud.
— Rob Reiner (@robreiner) March 18, 2024
Various other reactions from the commentariat include “sad”, the “king of debt” may need to hold a fire sale, and a pic of Trump sweating.
Summary of the day so far
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Donald Trump’s lawyers told a New York appellate court that it’s impossible for him to post a bond covering the full amount of his $454m civil fraud judgment while he appeals.
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Trump’s claim to be immune from criminal prosecution for acts committed in office is rejected by 70% of American voters, and 48% of Republicans, according to a new poll.
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The supreme court is hearing arguments in Murthy v Missouri, a case with the potential to radically redefine how the US government interacts with social media companies.
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Congress is once again running up on yet another critical government funding deadline, with a dispute over border security funding threatening to force a shutdown of vast swaths of the federal government.
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The father of Laken Riley has objected to how he says his daughter’s death is “being used politically” ahead of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
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Mike Johnson, the House speaker, asked fractious fellow Republicans to “cool it” and stop fighting each other during primary elections as he seeks to maintain some sort of control over a caucus at the mercy of the far right.
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The supreme court rejected an appeal from Couy Griffin, a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office over his role in the January 6 insurrection.
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Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, accused the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer, of treating his country like a “banana republic” after Schumer publicly broke with Netanyahu over his handling of the war and called for new elections in Israel.
Adam Gabbatt
The father of Laken Riley, whom authorities suspect was murdered by an undocumented migrant in February, has objected to how he says his daughter’s death is “being used politically” ahead of the upcoming presidential and congressional elections.
Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was beaten to death on the University of Georgia’s campus on 22 February. Republicans have claimed Riley’s slaying represents a failure of the Joe Biden White House’s border policies and have used the killing to push legislation which would make it easier for law enforcement to detain unauthorized migrants accused of theft.
Jason Riley, Laken’s father, told NBC’s Today show:
I’d rather her not be such a political – how you say – it started a storm in our country … It’s incited a lot of people.
Jason Riley said that since his daughter was killed, “there’s people on both sides that have lashed out at [his and Laken’s mother’s] families”.
Investigators have charged José Ibarra with Riley’s murder. The 26-year-old, who is originally from Venezuela, had previously been charged with two crimes in New York before being released, US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement said, although officials in the state told the Associated Press they had no record of Ibarra being previously arrested.
“I think it’s being used politically to get those votes,” Jason Riley said of his daughter’s death.
It makes me angry. I feel like, you know, they’re just using my daughter’s name for that. And she was much better than that, and she should be raised up for the person that she is. She was an angel.
Donald Trump is facing “insurmountable difficulties” in obtaining a bond to satisfy the $454m civil fraud judgment, his lawyers said in a court filing on Monday.
In the filing, the former president’s lawyers wrote that Trump had “devoted a substantial amount of time, money, and effort” toward obtaining a bond but has “faced what have proven to be insurmountable difficulties in obtaining an appeal bond for the full $464 million.”
Trump himself was ordered to pay $454m and with interest, owes $456.8m, according to AP. In all, he and co-defendants including his company and top executives owe $467.3m.
They said Trump has approached 30 underwriters to back the bond, which is due by the end of this month, but that “very few bonding companies will consider a bond of anything approaching” the amount.
The supreme court has rejected an appeal from a former New Mexico county commissioner who was removed from office over his role in the January 6 insurrection.
Couy Griffin, a cowboy pastor and commissioner in Otero county in southern New Mexico, was kicked out of office in 2022 after he was sentenced to 14 days in jail and a $3,000 (£2,604) fine for misdemeanor trespassing during the Capitol attack. Griffin is the only elected official thus far to be banned from office in connection with the Capitol attack.
The 14th amendment to the US constitution bars anyone who has participated in an insurrection from holding elected office.
Though the supreme court ruled this month that states do not have the power to bar Donald Trump or other candidates for federal offices from the ballot, the justices said different rules apply to state and local candidates.
Martin Pengelly
House speaker Mike Johnson asked fractious fellow Republicans to “cool it” and stop fighting each other in displays of “member-on-member action” during primary elections as he seeks to maintain some sort of control over a caucus at the mercy of the far right, controlling the chamber by a mere two votes.
“I’ve asked them all to cool it,” Johnson told CNN in remarks published Sunday.
I am vehemently opposed to member-on-member action in primaries because it’s not productive. And it causes division for obvious reasons, and we should not be engaging in that. So I’m telling everyone who’s doing that to knock it off. And both sides, they’ll say, ‘Well, we didn’t start it, they started it.’
Florida congressman Matt Gaetz, the far-right Trumpist firebrand pursuing such fights, effectively told the same outlet: “They started it.”
“I would love nothing more than to just go after Democrats,” said Gaetz, who was last year the prime mover behind the historic ejection of Johnson’s predecessor as speaker, Kevin McCarthy, and who is now going after two more Republicans, Tony Gonzales of Texas and Mike Bost of Illinois.
“If Republicans are going to dress up like Democrats in drag, I’m going to go after them too,” Gaetz said.
Because at the end of the day, we’re not judged by how many Republicans we have in Congress. We’re judged on whether or not we save the country.
Gonzales is under attack over a vote for gun safety reform, after the Uvalde elementary school massacre; over his positions on immigration reform; and for voting in favour of same-sex marriage.
