Newsweek just broke a story entitled “Letitia James To Begin Claiming Donald Trump’s Properties: Lawyer. Here are excerpts. “An insurance company will not be permitted to post a $175 million bond for Donald Trump while he appeals a fraud judgment, a former federal prosecutor has said. Eric Lisann was reacting to a separate comment by another lawyer, Dave Kingman, who wrote that Knight Specialty Insurance will not be able to post the bond for Trump.”
Will not be able? It would be good to know the nuts and bolts behind this determination.
Kingman wrote that, as a result, New York Attorney General Letitia James will be able to begin enforcement proceedings on Donald Trump’s properties.
A New York court has rejected Knight Specialty’s paperwork and said it wanted to see more information on its financial backing. The company filed new paperwork on April 4.
The story went on to say that it had sought email comment from both Knight Insurance and Trump’s attorney and apparently those two entities are silent as the tomb for the moment. Can’t say as that’s surprising.
Trump must post the $175 million bond to prevent James from beginning enforcement proceedings after a judge fined the former president $454 million in February for fraudulently inflating the value of his assets.
Writing on X, formerly Twitter, one-time federal prosecutor Lisann wrote that Knight Speciality might not be able to post the bond for Trump and will be liable for the full amount because it had given a guarantee to the court.
Whoa HO! Hold your horses, Nellie! Knight Specialty is going to be liable for the full amount? And then, right on cue, it gets worse.
“Looks like there is a real possibility that this Don Hankey-owned Knight Specialty Insurance does not itself have liquidity, and did not get from Trump collateral, sufficient to provide legally cognizable assurance that it can pay $175 million on demand in the event of a judgment-affirming appeal,” he said.
Knight did not get the collateral from Trump that it said it did? I don’t even know, to be honest, how this stacks up legally. I don’t even know who to call to ask. If there is a specialization of law, “bondsman law” or “bond backer law” and that’s the expert you would ask, this is brand new information to me. As I’ve said before, a company or person securing a bond is usually on the excitement scale between watching cement harden and paint dry.
But certainly at first blush it seems like a whole lot of monied people have some explaining to do. Or, maybe Newsweek is messing this up. They’ve been in business quite a while and even though ownership has changed in recent years to a foreign investor, (with a right-wing slant, no less) they’re still doing credible journalism last I knew.
“But the Trumpian part is that even though, or perhaps because, it may be part of a Trump scam, Knight now too may be on the hook for $175 million as it won’t automatically get out from underneath its own proffered surety.”
“Understand that Knight Specialty has a problem. This bond cannot be approved. Under the CPLR [Civil Practice Laws and Rules] the surety will remain obligated under the bond until a replacement bond is filed. Trump is unlikely to get a replacement bond. Knight Spec will be liable AND Trump won’t have a stay [on enforcement],” he [Kingman] wrote.
IF Trump doesn’t have a stay on enforcement, then in fact James can begin to seize his properties. What a saga this has been:
- First, 30 bond companies tell Trump to buzz off,
- Then Knight
in shining armorshows up. But the bond was then rejected by the court’s filing system shortly after it was posted due to missing paperwork, including a “current financial statement.” - James, whose office led the fraud case against Trump, later raised questions about the “sufficiency” of the bond and noted that the surety backing it, Knight Specialty Insurance Company (KSIC), is not admitted in New York, meaning it’s ineligible to obtain a certificate of qualification from the Department of Financial Services.
- KSIC has refiled its paperwork as a result in an effort to get the process moving again.
Okay, so the process is moving again, but what does that mean exactly? I think the salient point here to focus on is the fact that there is no stay in place and James can proceed forward. But even if James does not proceed forward, I think it will be intriguing to see who, exactly, is on the hook for the $175M.
Also, isn’t a bond required for Fat Donnie to appeal?
That’s why he’s trying to get a bond posted, so that he can appeal.
It’s starting to look like the only Bond that would be able to save Trump is one named James.
Unluckily for Trump, he is an entirely fictional character – just like his other ‘bonds’.
That’s funny 🙂
That is the case. I am wondering what the story is about Knight refiling. If they don’t have the money, they don’t. And I’m also wondering about Trump not giving them collateral. If he didn’t — because he can’t — and they said he did, it seems to me that’s illegal as hell.
Nope, it just stops the seizures. Interest rate keeps growing daily.
You’re mistaken. In New York, he cannot appeal without the bond. The interest adds up regardless.
He’s can’t appeal unless he is able to post the bond with a reputable company.
He can appeal whether there is a bond or not. It does stop James from taking his assets tho.
He can talk about appealing all he wants to. Once he hires an appellate lawyer and orders the transcript, then I’ll believe he’s really filing an appeal.
knight is worth 7 billion… pretty sure the has access to 175 million… this all has to do with the fact that knight isn’t charging trump for the bond lol
I don’t know if Knight is worth $7B. Supposedly Don Hankey is. Forbes says that and their estimate should be good. Hankey charged one or two percent of the bond as their fee. I find it hard to believe that this basic deal is falling apart but that’s what the story seems to say.
I don’t think it is worth $7B that what the problem
Bond should go back to the original $450 million!
Hope Trump gets hung out to dry!!
Trump still owes the original fine and will continue to do so unless he wins on appeal and something else is decided. I imagine he’ll be given an opportunity to come up with the $175M bond somewhere. Here we go again.