Getting Under The Hood

Letitia James slaps back after 'panicked' Trump demands stay to his $464M fraud rulinghttps://t.co/9IH7rgHcLU

— Raw Story (@RawStory) March 20, 2024

Sureties may have refused to accept defendants’ specific holdings as collateral because using Mr. Trump’s real estate will generally need 'a property appraisal,'" writes prosecutor Dennis Fan, "and his holdings are not nearly as valuable as defendants claim."

The NYAG also doesn’t take Trump’s claims at face value. To determine if Trump is entitled to relief, they point out it needs to be established whether Trump couldn’t get a bond, or couldn’t get it on terms he’d agree to.

Final judgement are final. And presumptively enforceable. Trump doesn’t get to negotiate this. The State, in fact, will probably seize and hold the property while the appeals play out, in case the judgment is reversed or reduced.

Other reports indicate Trump thinks the Supreme Court will ultimately bail him out. By that time he’ll be in a jail cell and broke. I also can’t imagine what issue raised by this case would engage the Supremes. If it’s even the same court now that it may be then. Appeals are all about delays, and that won’t work in Trump’s favor this time.

When Holmes asked the former president's allies about what the Trump campaign team was working on other than trying to find the bond, she received a startling reply: "Nothing." 

"Everybody is really fixated, really upset, about how to do this bond," Holmes said. "This is something that they are very panicked about."

What’s that line about how a looming gallows tends to focus the mind? Trump imagining he can win this case in the Supreme Court is like the man who can’t imagine his own death. If this case is tied up in appeals for years, with his property either under liens for a bond, or held by the State of New York: who does business with Trump? And he’ll probably be in jail, which also kills his business future. He won’t be able to grift for dollars to pay the lawyers (and when the money dries up, they start leaving). He has no right to counsel on the civil appeals. If he want to pursue those to the bitter end, that’s gonna cost him. Trump can’t seemingly imagine that future. But it’s coming at him just the same.