Fox News host Eric Shawn fact-checked former President Donald Trump’s claim that the $454 million bond he has to pay by Monday is “unprecedented,” saying it is “actually not true.”
In February, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355 million, plus interest, and barred him from doing business in New York for three years after finding him liable for financial fraud in September 2023 in a lawsuit brought on by New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office. Trump, the presumed GOP presidential nominee in the 2024 election, has claimed that he has done nothing wrong and that the case is politically motivated against him. He has appealed Engoron’s judgment.
Meanwhile, the former president has until Monday to come up with a $454 million bond to stop James from seizing his assets in order to pay Engoron’s judgment. Trump has repeatedly slammed the ruling and disparaged the judge himself and James, on his social media platform Truth Social.
“A bond of the size set by the Democrat Club-controlled Judge, in Corrupt, Racist Letitia James’ unlawful Witch Hunt, is unConstitutional, un-American, unprecedented, and practically impossible for ANY Company, including one as successful as mine,” Trump wrote in a post last Monday.
During an interview with former federal prosecutor Alex Little on Fox News Live on Sunday, Shawn said: “We’ve also heard there’s a lot of talk about this is unprecedented amount of money. This has never happened before. But that’s actually not true. This is from Letitia James, the attorney general’s own court papers I’m gonna show it to you right now.”
A graphic then appeared on the screen listing multiple court cases with bonds at or over $1 billion, including Sony Music Entertainment v. Cox Communications at $1.2 billion, Apple v. Samsung Electronics at $1 billion, Oracle USA v. SAP AG at $1.3 billion, and Carnegie Mellon University v. Marvell Technology Group at $1.5 billion.
“There have been bigger bonds in the history—look from one billion dollars to one and a half billion dollars,” Shawn said. “Those are public companies. What is the argument that this has never been this big for a private company while there have been billion-dollar bonds secured before?”
Little responded: “Yeah, I think that it’s certainly true there’ve been large bonds…the purpose of the bond is to secure those funds for the plaintiff here, the state of New York, at the end of the appeal to make sure they can collect.
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“It says, ‘Hey if you’re if you’re a defendant, you want to appeal, you can do that.’ But we have to make sure to save the money in case the plaintiff gets to collect it,” the ex-prosecutor said. “The bond is huge. There’s no reason it can’t be split up into smaller bonds. You could do five bonds issued by five different companies for $100 million and I suspect Trump’s team is looking at that.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s campaign and Little via email for comment.
Trump’s son, Eric Trump, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, on Sunday: “A half a billion dollar bond is simply not commercially available. The 30 largest bonding companies in the United States have never seen a bond close to this size for anyone, let alone a private company. Letitia James is hellbent on a political vendetta against my father with zero regard for the lives of thousands of hard-working New Yorkers, who make their living in our buildings.”
Meanwhile, Lisa Rubin, a legal analyst for MSNBC, responded to the inaccuracies in Eric Trump’s post, writing on X: “First, there is no requirement that there bond come from a single surety or lender. A syndicate of sureties or underwriters can collectively post the bond.”
“Second, do not give credence to the notion that this would be the biggest bond ever. Yes, hyperbole is a Trump specialty—but…the NYAG has counterexamples of several $1 billion-plus bonds as well,” she added.
It is uncertain if Trump will be able to secure the bond by Monday. The former president’s legal team wrote in a court filing last week that it is a “practical impossibility” to come up with the money in that time. However, Trump wrote on Truth Social on Friday that he has almost $500 million in cash.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.