Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump was in New York City on Monday morning for a pretrial hearing in the so-called “hush money” case in Manhattan, but while he was sitting before Judge Juan Merchan, another New York judge got slapped with a stinging defeat by a higher court.
An appellate court panel ruled on Monday that President Donald Trump could post a significantly smaller bond amount to appeal the over-the-top $454 million judgment demanded by New York Judge Arthur Engoron in the now-infamous civil fraud case spearheaded by state Attorney General Letitia James.
Engoron set the bond amount at nearly half a billion dollars, which the president’s legal team argued was “unconstitutional” and “excessive.” Had Trump failed to post that bond amount on Monday, AG James could have begun seizing his assets in New York.
Monday’s appellate decision dealt a crushing blow to James and Engoron, who were likely hoping that Trump’s bond amount would be too high for him to post, thus blocking the president from being able to appeal the staggering ruling.
After stepping out of Judge Merchan’s courtroom on Monday morning, Trump spoke briefly to the press and reacted to the appellate win. “Judge Engoron has done a terrible disservice to the state of New York – what he’s done is terrible. Businesses are fleeing, you see that, we just released a statement on Truth.”
He continued, “Businesses are failing and crime is flourishing all over the state. What he’s done is SUCH a disservice and it should never be allowed to happen again. New York state is being battered by his decision. So, I greatly respect the decision of the appellate decision, and I’ll post the $175 million in cash or bonds or security or whatever is necessary, very quickly, within the ten days.”
He thanked the appellate division for “acting quickly” and called Engoron a “disgrace” to the country.
