A judge accepted Donald Trump‘s $175 million bond in his civil fraud case after the former president and Attorney General Letitia James reached an agreement to modify the conditions of the bond during a hearing in New York on Monday.
Judge Arthur Engoron said that so long as Trump gave Knight Specialty Insurance, a small Delaware-based insurer, exclusive access to the bank account that is serving as collateral for the bond, then the judge would approve it, according to a Law360 report.
Engoron’s decision comes after James argued in a motion that Trump did not have “sufficiently secure and ascertainable collateral backing the bond” and that Engoron should therefore reject it.
Trump was required to post the bond while he fights a judgment issued by Engoron in February that he pay $454 million in fines and interest after Engoron found Trump and Trump Organization executives liable for years of business fraud.
An appellate court recently agreed with Trump that while the former president’s appeal of the judgment remains pending, he should not have to post a bond for the full amount of the judgment but rather for $175 million. Trump had argued that he could not pay the full amount because no company would authorize a bond payment of that magnitude.
A Schwab brokerage account that Trump had control over was serving as the collateral for Knight’s bond.
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Big Trump day for @Law360 . While @frankrunyeon and @stewartbishop cover openings in Donald Trump's NY criminal trial, I'm next door in civil court for args over the sufficiency of Trump's $175M bond to secure the NY AG's $465M fraud judgment pending appeal.
— Rachel Scharf (@rscharf_) April 22, 2024