While Donald Trump sat in criminal court, part of his legal team was in civil court not far away, working to convince Judge Arthur Engoron to accept a bond facilitated for the former president by Knight Insurance.
The bond saga has been a complicated one for Trump, even after his team convinced an appellate court to lower the bond from half a billion dollars to $175 million. Knight Insurance isn’t registered in New York, and Attorney General Letitia James has expressed concerns that the company might not be able to pay up when or if the appeals court rules against Trump.
In the Monday morning hearing, attorney Andrew Amer for the A.G.’s office expressed concerns about the bank account Trump is using as collateral. It has been alternately described as holding cash only, or “cash and cash equivalents.” According to Law360 reporter Rachel Scharf, he stated the concern:
“While the funds are cash today, under the terms of the pledge agreement and control agreement they can be swapped out for less secure collateral like mutual funds.”
Trump’s attorney Christopher Kise had argued that the current arrangement was no different from if Trump had written the check for $175 million and left it in the account for safekeeping — not a wholly convincing argument at the end of a case where the former president was ruled to have falsified property values and his net worth repeatedly.
Kise’s alternative proposal seemed to be that the court just take the risk since they could always move to seize Trump’s properties if he loses the appeal and defaults on paying the judgment.
Another concern is that a Trump-controlled entity also has access to the account, and the agreement leaves a time gap before Knight can access it, in the event that Trump loses his appeal.
However, Amer proposed a compromise, and after a break to settle terms, an agreement was reached. Trump has to turn over full control of the fund to Knight, and the account must stay in cash.
After the fact, Trump gave an alternate interpretation of the proceedings, arguing that Judge Engoron hadn’t known he put up the money as collateral and that when he found out it was cash, he quickly approved the bond. He also claimed Attorney General Letitia James was just trying to “embarrass” Knight Insurance. He said:
“The deal was approved, with the Attorney General, if you can believe that…she just tried to embarrass everybody and she tried to embarrass a very good bonding company by saying they weren’t creditworthy. Well they were creditworthy, and what was more important is, they had a security $175 million that I put up.”
Trump’s bond will now stay in place until his appeal of the judgment against him in his fraud case is heard and a new ruling is issued either affirming Judge Engoron’s penalty or determining a new verdict in the case.
Watch Trump comment on the latest ruling below:
Trump: Letitia James just tried to embarrass a very good bonding company pic.twitter.com/wdKPeVkQzi
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 22, 2024
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