Reality, meet Fantasy. Donald Trump doesn’t have the $454M he needs to post a bond and he can’t get it, surprise surprise. He’s a billionaire with a “B” and all, right? Well, that’s the fiction. So two things happening simultaneously today: Leticia James is done waiting and she’s gearing up to levy, while Alina Habba is frantically doing damage control on right-wing radio.
Let’s start with that so we can have a good laugh. Habba was on the X22 Report today. Newsweek reports that the show has been banned on YouTube and Spotify over promotion of QAnon conspiracy theories. A Spotify spokesperson told Insider that the company “prohibits content on the platform that promotes, advocates or incites violence against others,” and confirmed that the platform had taken down four other QAnon-related shows.
Be that as it may, Alina wants to talk to QAnon and Trump world generally speaking. So she spun a lovely fantasy that their hero, Donald Trump, isn’t going to have to pay the $454 million fine assessed by the court, because the verdict will be overturned.
Speaking to X22 Report, Habba said that Trump’s civil trial was “predetermined” and they had “lost before we even walked in.” Engoron ruled that the former president had committed fraud in his financial statements and that the proceedings in New York were mainly to determine the size of the penalty.
“So it was a damages trial. And of course the left wants to paint it as this massive loss, the reality is, she [James] had it in the bag. We had a judge that was definitely partial to her side,” Habba said.
“And despite the fact that witnesses frankly had said that they were great clients, we all made money, they did nothing wrong, we got slammed with this egregious number, and I’m confident we’ll overturn it.”
Where she gets this confidence from, nobody seems to know. What should concern her greatly is what she’s not telling the Trump world/QAnon audience and is what Letitia James is going to do. Let’s hear it from Mary Trump who tells it so amusingly.
We learned from the court filing that Donald’s attorneys revealed to the judge that not only is their client unable to secure the cash, but over “30 surety companies through 4 separate brokers” rejected his application. Let’s review that a little more closely.
Why would 30 insurance companies refuse to front Donald the cash?
Per The New York Times: “Mr. Trump does not have enough liquidity to obtain the bond. To offer a bond of this size, the companies would require Mr. Trump to pledge more than $550 million in cash, stocks and bonds as collateral — a sum he simply does not have.”
Donald has always presented himself as a man who is, in his words, “really rich”; a multi-billionaire who as of last year had $400 million in the bank. Today those claims are revealed to be the fiction they always were.
And while Donald might be trying to exploit any loophole he can find while simultaneously playing victim, Letitia James isn’t having any of it.
AG James strikes back with a vengeance
AG James has asked the court to hold Donald to his full bond because he can’t, and shouldn’t, be trusted.
She finds him so untrustworthy, in fact, that she wants to see proof that the surety companies he approached refused to accept real estate interests or “his private jets or helicopters” as collateral.
James also says that if Donald cannot pay his judgment, she “will ask the judge to seize his assets.”
“We are prepared to make sure that the judgment is paid to New Yorkers, and yes, I look at 40 Wall Street each and every day,” James said, referring to the Trump Building in Manhattan.
She looks at 40 Wall Street every day. Maybe we should all do that. Maybe we should get up every morning and face east and intone, “Is 40 Wall Street still in your name, Donald? We’re watching.” The orange-tinted clown has been exposed and unless he can come up with the money he will begin to have assets levied on.
Which raises his liability as a national security risk. Mary Trump’s article goes on to point out that the price of a U.S. presidency these days, at least if you’re looking to purchase the Republican nominee, is half a billion dollars. Plus interest.
And don’t forget Ms. James–trump uses campaign funds for his legal case. That makes them fair game as well as easy money since those funds are QUITE liquid. He treats rnc funds, his campaign funds, PAC money for his election, as his own personal piggy banks–let’s see that behavior bite him in the ass hard.
He owns a so-called “foundational lease” on 40 Wall Street worth something in the neighborhood of $300 million. According to Business Insider a few years ago he had a loan against that lease for about $175 million, so his equity at best may be around $125 million. It would be interesting to know if the King of Debt has sufficient equity in all his properties to make up the $454 million. I’m betting he doesn’t.
Awww poor Donald – people are finding out he really iS poor
Let’s see. Off the top of my head at the top of the list of assets James should file against are:
1. Trump Tower (40 Wall Street)
2. Mar A Lago
3. Bedminster Golf Club
4. Trump National Golf Club
She’ll have to deal with existing creditors on all of them and THEY might call in the loans and seize those assets. Not to worry, there’s plenty more to go after but just those four would start the dominos falling. Other creditors will start calling in their own loans to get what they can while they can. But the best part is that Trump won’t be able to live in the places he likes to hang his hat! Oh, I’m sure some GOP mega donor will take pity on him and let him stay at one of their places but THAT would qualify as an in-kind campaign contribution since he’s a Presidential candidate. Same for someone loaning him a plane if James seizes “Trump Force One.
Then there is is the money he’s begged for for his legal expenses. I’d think that his legal PAC would be fair game because any money in it is under his personal control to use as he sees fit. The same might well be true of other PAC money. Those pesky disclaimers in fine print the MAGA goobers don’t read but which gives him the right to “re-direct” donations. Which again means since he personally controls the money it’s an asset and all of this IS liquid.
My fear is at the last minute Musk or someone else will swoop in and flush a half-billion dollars of their own money down the toilet to save his worthless (literally) ass. But rich people can be strange sometimes. If they have to do THAT, it will become known and it makes it very likely Trump will lose in November. That means he won’t be able to do anything for them in the future. Even for someone worth tens of billions flushing a half billion down the toilet on Trump might be too much for any of them.
Hell, none of them were willing to cough up 90 million for the E. Jean Carroll verdict! If they weren’t willing to do that I’m hoping against hope they won’t cough up five times that much. Like I said, when Trump is revealed and the MAGAs see there orange hued Turd Emperor has no clothes several million or more might finally have the scales fall from their eyes. He needs every last one of them.
I won’t be toasting with a couple of shots of Jack until the close of business on the final day Trump has to come up with the money, and James drops the first set of motions to seize assets in the night hopper with the court. In the meantime I am rewriting lyrics of a familiar tune:
He knows you’ve lied and cheated
He knows that you are broke
He knows you cannot pay your debt,
better hope you don’t have a stroke.
Oh, it’s time to pay up
Even though you can’t
All you can do is rage and rant
Payback Man is coming, to town!
mister…can you loan me a dime?
Yesterday I saw where someone referred to trump as a “bino”, billionaire in name only! loved it!
That is awesome! “BINO” Trump is something I hope starts trending on social media to the point where TV talking heads will be forced to cover it. It will drive Trump even more batshit insane. Thanks for sharing this with us.