According to former President Donald Trump’s attorneys, more than 30 insurance companies passed on the opportunity to underwrite a $450+ million surety bond for Trump to post while he appeals the verdict in his business fraud case in New York. That group included insurance giant Chubb, which had earlier provided Trump a $91.6 million surety bond (to appeal the E. Jean Carroll defamation jury verdict) that drew enough criticism from Chubb stakeholders that the company’s CEO wrote a letter defending the move.
With the dozens of rejections, Trump’s lawyers told the court it was an “insurmountable” task to raise the required amount, both because firms are customarily unwilling to go above $100 million for an appeal bond and because they require cash or stock — not real estate — as collateral. In a court filing, Trump’s side asserted “an appeal bond for $464mn is a practical impossibility under the circumstances presented,” reports Insurance Business Magazine.
[NOTE: Trump’s real estate holdings — along with the value of his name and “brand” — represent a significant portion of his net worth in market conditions that make both commercial real estate and the Trump name highly speculative investments.]
Today on Truth Social, Trump said that “through hard work, talent, and luck” he has nearly $500 million cash on hand. This is not a claim that any insurance company has changed its tune on issuing a bond, but that Trump has the cash in hand.
Trump now claims that he has almost $500 million in cash, but his lawyers recently told the appellate court that he has no means to post a $454 million bond.
One of them is lying, and you can expect the court to ask Trump’s lawyers about this. pic.twitter.com/z0Yj6NUc7B
— Renato Mariotti (@renato_mariotti) March 22, 2024
Responding to Trump’s claim, former Federal Prosecutor Renato Mariotti contends that Trump — or his attorneys — are lying. Or were lying. Mariotti says that Trump’s lawyers “recently told the appellate court that he has no means to post a $454 million bond.” Mariotti concludes this means that “one of them is lying, and you can expect the court to ask Trump’s lawyers about this.”
Circumstances can change swiftly, making the assertion by Trump’s lawyers just days ago and Trump’s assertion today both true, of course. Trump’s ownership share of Truth Social, going public in a merger with a special purpose acquisitions company called Digital World Acquisition Corp. (DWAC), is expected to produce a lucrative windfall for the former President, despite questions about its untraditional valuation. Trump may not be able to pull the money out in a hurry without crashing the stock price, but he may have been able to convince a borrower to lend him the $500 million or so with the DWAC stock as collateral.
If the $500 million windfall — however the “hard work, talent, and luck” managed to produce it — is both real and not of recent vintage, meaning new this week, Trump’s lawyers will face hard questions about saying he didn’t have the money when he did. In that case, Mariotti would be right — one party is lying. It Trump got the money yesterday or this morning, however, the two divergent claims are not in conflict.