Donald Trump’s attorney Alina Habba has disclosed that the former US president has a lot of cash and will be able to pay the roughly $35million bond on his $355 million fraud verdict in 30 days.
Judge Arthur Engoron ruled Friday in a 92-page order that Trump must pay the amount in a ruling where he blasted the former president for a ‘complete lack of contrition and remorse’.
The payments will exceed $450 million with interest, and come after another court ordered Trump to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll after a jury found him liable for defamation.
Trump has testified that he had more than $400 million in cash, but there are questions about his ability to raise the funds from his real estate empire.
‘I would never get into anything privileged,’ Habba told Fox News on Monday.
‘I can tell you what the rules are. Within 30 days, even if we choose to appeal this, we have to post the bond, which is the full amount and then some. We will be prepared to do that,’ she said.
Bond agents typically charge 9 per cent as a form of insurance in order to put up the money.
Trump’s challenge will be to secure the bond even at a time when Engoron put control of his company in the hands of an additional independent monitor, and prohibited him from running any company in New York State for a period of three years.
Habba blasted the ruling days after Trump vented about it online and at campaign events. ‘You’re looking at roughly let’s call it close to $400 million for something that he did nothing wrong,’ she said.
‘What they’re trying to do between this case and my last case is put him out of business,’ she said. ‘It’s not going to work.’ She called it a ‘scare tactic,’ but insisted: ‘He’s strong. He’s resilient, and he happens to have a lot of cash.
‘It’s insane,’ she said.
Habba didn’t say if Trump would have to liquidate assets in order to come up with the cash.
Trump is estimated to be worth more than $2 billion, but much of his wealth is tied up in partnerships and complex real estate holdings, including two dozen buildings and a domestic and overseas golf and real estate empire.
New York AG Letitia James found his liquid assets were $93 million as of 2020.
He claimed in a deposition for the suit brought by New York AG Letitia James to have $400 million in cash, saying it was ‘a lot for a developer.’
