Letitia James Could Soon Start Going After Trump’s Properties, as $454 Million Bond Deadline Looms

As President Trump’s lawyers seek a pause on a $454 million fine from his civil fraud case, New York’s attorney general, Letitia James, may soon make good on her threat to ask a judge to seize Mr. Trump’s assets.“If he does not have funds to pay off the judgment then we will seek judgment enforcement mechanisms in court and we will ask the judge to seize his assets,” Ms. James said in an interview last month with ABC News. “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,” she added.On Tuesday morning, Mr. Trump repeatedly called the case a “witch hunt” and “election interference” and said it would make businesses leave the state while migrant crime flourishes. “The Corrupt Political Hacks in New York, Judge and AG, are asking me to put up massive amounts of money before I am allowed to appeal the ridiculous decision,” he wrote on Truth Social. “Never done before. No jury, no victim, full disclaimer clause, happy banks. ELECTION INTERFERENCE! WITCH HUNT!”After Ms. James successfully secured a fine against Mr. Trump for nearly half a billion dollars over business fraud, she has been vocal about her “massive victory” and the interest on it, which is estimated to be growing by more than $100,000 daily. In an apparent taunting of Mr. Trump, in February Ms. James was posting the daily — and rapidly increasing — interest amount on her X account.With a Monday deadline to post the bond looming, Mr. Trump’s lawyers asked for relief in a legal filing, noting that none of the 30 insurance firms they’ve contacted have been willing to cover the bond, as the Sun reported.“In deciding whether to enter a stay, the Court may consider ‘any relevant factor, including the presumptive merits of the appeal and any exigency or hardship confronting any party,’” the filing noted. “A bond requirement of this enormous magnitude — effectively requiring cash reserves approaching $1 billion — is unprecedented for a private company.”If the fine isn’t paused, Mr. Trump’s filing notes he may be forced to participate in a “fire sale” of his properties to obtain the cash, which his attorneys say would “result in massive, irrecoverable losses.” His lawyers said that the nearly-half billion dollar fine is a violation of the Excessive Fines clause of the Constitution and claims “this case has no victims, no damages, and no actual financial losses.”Yet Ms. James has said that financial fraud is not a “victimless crime.” “He engaged in this massive amount of fraud and it wasn’t just a simple mistake, a slight oversight,” she told ABC News. “The variations were wildly exaggerated and the extent of the fraud was staggering.” In response to Mr. Trump’s claims that the fines will cause businesses to flee New York, she said “last I checked, tourism is up and Wall Street is doing just fine.”

Letitia James Could Soon Start Going After Trump’s Properties, as $454 Million Bond Deadline Looms

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