A victory for former US President Donald Trump in court today. He had until Monday to post a bail amount of 454 million dollars – about 419 million euros. He had to pay that amount to the state of New York because he lied for years about the value of his assets. Trump had requested that bail be suspended, but the request was repeatedly denied. The New York prosecutor has just (partially) approved that request.
The original bail was not paid on time and so Trump risked losing his property. But today, prosecutor Letitia James, a Democrat, announced that the appeals court will block the collection of the monster amount of $454 million (419 million euros) if Trump pays $175 million (162 million euros) within ten days. That statement comes after a request from Trump. A victory for the former president, because if he pays that amount on time, he can appeal the fraud case.
Through his social media platform Truth Social, he says he accepts the decision of the court in New York.
James could also decide to give Trump more time to pay the sum of $454. However, last month she told the American channel ABC News that she would have Trump’s property seized if he did not have the money to pay the fine. Trump could therefore lose his Seven Springs estate and the Trump Building in New York, among other things. The Republican presidential candidate claimed last week that he still had half a billion dollars in cash, but that he wanted to give it to the presidential election campaign instead of this lawsuit.
LOOK. VTM NEWS journalist Romina Van Camp: “175 million dollars must be doable for Donald Trump”
Seizure of property
However, selling those properties – in order to pay the deposit – is easier said than done. “Finding buyers for assets of this size is something that doesn’t happen overnight,” said Stewart Sterk, a professor of real estate law at the AP news agency. “The chance that people will be able to bid up to the actual value of the property is quite small.”
Trump’s lawyers had asked for the collection to be frozen while he appeals the verdict. James has always rejected that until now. Trump was only given the chance to appeal his sentence if he paid the hundreds of millions of dollars in bail.
He denies the allegations and claims the judge’s decision was politically motivated. According to Trump, it is an attempt to keep him out of the White House.
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