Alina Habba was asked on Wednesday if Donald Trump was working to secure his New York civil fraud bond from foreign entities amid speculation that the former president could look overseas to post his $454 million in penalties.
The former president is coming dangerously close to a deadline on Monday to come up with a financial guarantee to post his total bond amount, which stems from a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James. If Trump fails to do so, state prosecutors could start the process of enforcing the judgment, which includes targeting Trump’s assets and real estate properties.
Speaking with Fox News’ Martha MacCallum on Wednesday afternoon, Habba, Trump’s lead defense counsel in the case, said that the $454 million in penalties is “completely ridiculous,” and condemned the ruling by New York State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron, who found Trump, his two adult sons and others associated with The Trump Organization liable of misleading lenders and insurance companies for better terms.
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“It is intentionally to interfere in the election, to hurt President Trump, to try and ruin his company, and ruin a person and a family whose private company, not public company, has made the skyline of New York changed forever,” Habba added.
Trump maintains that he is innocent and has said that he intends to appeal the ruling, which would require an additional $10 million to his total bond amount. The former president is also the presumptive GOP nominee for the 2024 presidential election.
MacCallum also asked Habba if there was “any effort” on Trump’s defense team to try to secure the total bond amount “through another country,” such as Saudi Arabia or Russia.
“There’s rules and regulations that are public,” Habba responded. “I can’t speak about strategy. That requires certain things, and we have to follow those rules.”
Some critics of the former president have raised concerns that Trump’s growing debt among his legal cases could pose a national security risk depending on who or what entities agree to post the bond. According to a court filing from Trump’s lawyers on Monday, the defense team has asked over 30 companies to cover the bond: All of such requests have been denied.
National security lawyer Mary McCord told MSNBC over the weekend that there are “certainly plenty of people who might want to bail him out,” suggesting that some entities could be “foreign, some of those might be Russian oligarchs,” or people and companies within the U.S.
“Any time you are talking about someone who is running for president or holding any elected office and potentially could have some indebtedness or feeling of owing somebody else something, that’s very dangerous,” McCord added.
Democratic Congressman Sean Casten also raised concerns about Trump’s legal ramifications in a post to X, formerly Twitter, on Monday, writing that the former president’s position of being “desperate” for help covering his bond “makes him a massive national security risk; any foreign adversary seeking to buy a President knows the price.”
Newsweek on Wednesday reached out to Trump’s campaign for comment on the speculation over his bond.
Trump was able to secure a $91.6 million bond after his civil suit loss to E. Jean Carroll, who sued the former president for defamation and sexual assault. Despite being ordered to pay Carroll by two different juries for defaming the former magazine columnist, Trump maintains that he is innocent.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.