(ConservativeFreePress.com) – The office of the New York Attorney General has requested that a judge invalidate the $175 million bond obtained by former President Donald Trump, which was intended to delay the payment of a larger financial penalty in his civil fraud lawsuit.
In a recent legal submission, state attorneys contended that Trump, along with co-defendants including the Trump Organization and its senior executives (notably his eldest sons), did not sufficiently demonstrate that the surety backing the bond possesses the necessary financial resources.
Furthermore, the submission argued that the bond lacks “sufficiently secure and ascertainable” collateral. As a result, the attorneys from Attorney General Letitia James’s office requested the court to dismiss the motion to justify the surety, render the bond ineffective, and mandate the posting of a replacement bond within seven days, among other appropriate measures.
The bond in question was underwritten by Knight Specialty Insurance Company, a California-based insurer that, according to the state’s legal team, is not licensed to operate in New York and had not previously issued a surety bond in the state prior to this case.
The filings highlighted that Knight Specialty Insurance’s total policyholder surplus amounts to approximately $138 million, which under New York law restricts the company from taking on liabilities or potential losses exceeding 10 percent of their surplus. This legal limit would place the maximum permissible risk at around $13.8 million, far below the $175 million bond issued for Trump.
State attorneys also noted that Trump still holds access to the $175 million in cash used as collateral for the bond, challenging the claim that the bond is sufficiently backed by identifiable assets.
Earlier in the year, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump and his co-defendants engaged in a conspiracy to inflate Trump’s net worth for tax and insurance advantages, resulting in a directive to pay a combined total of $464 million, plus interest.
The bond was designed to prevent the Attorney General’s office from collecting the judgment amount while an appeal is ongoing and also to pause other penalties. Initially, the bond was set to cover the full judgment, but was later reduced after Trump’s legal team argued securing such an amount was unfeasible.
On Monday, a judge in New York ruled against the attempt at invalidating Trump’s bond.
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