Photo: Frank Franklin II Associated Press Former US President Donald Trump arrives at a press conference in New York on March 25.
France Media Agency in New York
11:37 p.m.
- United States
Donald Trump posted a $175 million bond with the US courts on Monday, sparing him the humiliating prospect of legal seizures of his assets after his conviction to pay US$454 million in fines for financial fraud in February, according to a court document made public.
The former President of the United States, candidate for his return to the White House, had until Thursday to post this guarantee covered by an insurance company and which is equivalent to a deposit, in this civil case where he appealed.
This guarantee gives him a breath of fresh air, while he must be tried from April 15, criminally this time, in a case of hidden payments to cover up embarrassing affairs in 2016, a historic first for a former American president.
A New York appeals court eased the financial pressure on the Republican billionaire a week ago by reducing the bail to 175 million.
“I deeply respect the decision of the court of appeal and I will deposit 175 million dollars […] very quickly, within ten days”, reacted the Republican candidate for the November presidential election, who has increased virulent attacks against his judges in cases in which he is being prosecuted.
Trial soon
Donald Trump was fined US$454 million in mid-February along with his sons Eric and Don Jr, for financial fraud within their real estate empire Trump Organization.
They were accused of having colossally inflated their assets throughout the 2010s to be granted more favorable loans from banks.
After the conviction, New York State Attorney General Letitia James threatened to launch legal seizures to recover the value of the fine, citing the building at 40 Wall Street.
The legal obstacle course is, however, far from over for the former President of the United States, who flew through the primary for his party's presidential nomination and will face, barring any surprises, Joe Biden in November, because he still sees four criminal cases before him.
Starting April 15, he will appear in a New York court in a case involving hidden payments to avoid embarrassing revelations during the 2016 presidential election, including $130,000 to buy a former porn star's silence about a relationship alleged that Donald Trump refutes.
At the end of this trial, Donald Trump theoretically faces up to a prison sentence if found guilty, an unprecedented scenario for a US presidential candidate.
In this case, Judge Juan Merchan who will preside over the trial sent a call to order to Donald Trump on Monday, prohibiting him in a written decision from attacking his family or that of the Manhattan prosecutor Alvin Bragg, after the former president broadcast attacks against the magistrate's daughter on social networks at the end of last week. A few days earlier, the judge had imposed initial speech restrictions on the Republican candidate, who continues to denounce a legal “witch hunt” against him.
The former president must also be tried in two cases, in Georgia and in federal court in Washington, for his alleged illegal attempts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, and in another case of handling classified documents upon his departure from the White House in 2021. But the holding of trials in these three cases before the presidential election is uncertain, after several postponements due to appeals filed by Donald Trump's lawyers.