- Trump is being allowed to post a bond for just $175M to cover a $457M fraud judgment he now owes NY.
- Trump gets a time break, too: his appeal now doesn’t need to be fully submitted until September.
- That makes it unlikely he’ll have exhausted his appeals by Election Day, a former assistant AG said.
There’s now pretty much no chance Donald Trump’s New York civil fraud case will be resolved by Election Day, a former assistant state attorney general told Business Insider.
A Manhattan appellate court cut Trump a big monetary break Monday, telling him he only needs to post a $175 million bond while he appeals a massive $454 million judgment — his penalty for what state judge found was a decade of defrauding banks.
But the appellate judges also cut Trump a time break on Monday.
Their order says Trump does not have to “perfect” his appeal — meaning have its paperwork fully submitted and ready for oral arguments — until the September court term, which starts September 3.
That timing means there’s no way Trump’s appeals will be exhausted by Election Day, says Kenneth Foard McCallion, a former New York assistant attorney general.
By Election Day, the original $454 million judgment against Trump will have accrued more than $28.6 million in additional interest.
The total judgement against Trump and his cofendants will have grown from nearly $364 million, at the time it was ordered, to nearly $494 million by the time Americans make it to the polls.
“It will be September or October for oral arguments” before Manhattan’s First Department predicted McCallion, who is in private practice, litigating complex real estate cases.
“We’re definitely looking at after the election” for their decision, said McCallion, who heads McCallion & Associates.
“It’s really quite unprecedented,” McCallion said of the timing.
He argues many cases at the appeals court, which covers Manhattan and the Bronx.
And this court is one that’s known for its speed, he said.
McCallion joked that there’s a clerk at the court who’s fond of boasting of how quickly the court moves.
“I usually have multiple appeals before the First Department,” he said. “One of the clerks there likes to say, ‘There’s a reason they call us the first.”
Trump’s lawyers would be expected to keep appealing all the way to the US Supreme Court, he noted, something they’ve already signaled.
“We could be well into 2025,” before New York Attorney General Letitia James sees any money, predicted McCallion, the author of Profiles in Cowardice in the Trump Era.
“I do think the appellate division is shooting the Attorney General in the foot by not taking this on an expedited basis and cutting him a break,” he said.
Would Trump being president gum up how the collection works?
“I don’t think so,” said McCallion, who is also a former federal prosecutor.
“Not really,” he added. “His legal rights would be neither greater or smaller than as Donald J. Trump, private citizen,” at least in state court, he said.
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