New York Attorney General Letitia James may seize former President Donald Trump’s assets during his criminal hush money trial, according to legal analyst Glenn Kirschner on Saturday.
In February, Judge Arthur Engoron ruled in James’ favor in her civil fraud lawsuit against Trump over allegations that the former president inflated the value of his properties and his own net worth by billions of dollars on financial statements provided to banks and insurers to make deals and secure loans. Engoron ordered Trump to pay over $450 million, which includes $355 million in penalties plus nearly $100 million in interest. Trump continues to deny any wrongdoing and says the case is a politically motivated “witch hunt.”
While appealing the verdict earlier this month, Trump, the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee, posted a substantially reduced bond in an effort to stop James from seizing his assets. The bond was backed by California-based Knight Specialty Insurance Company (KSIC). However, James quickly objected, noting that KSIC was not licensed in New York and raised questions about the “sufficiency” of the bond.
Trump and KSIC recently filed a motion backed by several documents that they said showed the bond was financially sound and guaranteed by the former president’s cash, while arguing that James had wrongly objected to the bond and urging Engoron to make her pay associated legal fees.
In a Saturday post to X, formerly Twitter, Kirschner, a former assistant U.S. attorney and frequent critic of the former president, shared a video in which he discussed the objected bond in Trump’s civil fraud case.
“Trump’s very bad week: a jury is in the box in his criminal case, and NY AG James objects to the $175 million bond Trump tired [sic] to post in his civil fraud case. And wait until you hear the three reasons AG James urges the judge to reject the bond,” he wrote.
Kirschner noted that while Trump attends his New York hush money trial, James might be “up the street seizing Trump’s properties” as he explained James’ three reasons to objecting the bond.
On Friday, James objected again as she filed her response, writing that KSIC was “not regulated by the state’s insurance department” and “had never before written a surety bond in New York or in the prior two years in any other jurisdiction.”
Michael M. Santiago and SARAH YENESEL / POOL / AFP/Getty Images
Kirschner explained: “First movants fail to meet their burden of establishing that there is sufficiently secure and ascertainable collateral backing the bond. Second, the court should not rely on KSIC’s financial summary attached to the bond as evidence that KSIC has sufficient capacity to justify writing a $175 million bond. Third, under the regulations that govern the placement of insurance on an excess line…KSIC is not qualified to act as the surety.”
He added: “At this rate, it looks like there is a fair chance that while Donald Trump is in that New York courtroom being prosecuted for 34 felony crimes, Attorney General Letitia James might be up the street seizing Trump’s properties.”
Lawyers representing Trump and James’ office are expected to meet in court on Monday for a hearing on the bond. Trump, however, will likely be in a different New York City courtroom on Monday, when his hush money criminal trial is set to resume with opening statements after jury selection was completed.
Newsweek has reached out to James’ office, Trump’s spokesperson and KSIC via email for comment.
Meanwhile, Trump became the first former president in U.S. history to stand trial in a criminal case on Monday. Following an investigation by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office, Trump was indicted in March 2023 on charges of falsifying business records relating to hush money paid to adult-film star Stormy Daniels during his 2016 presidential campaign. Daniels alleges that she had an affair with Trump in 2006, which he has denied. Trump has pleaded not guilty to all charges and said the case against him is politically motivated.
In addition, Engoron was asked to deny the previous motion by Trump’s legal team and invalidate the bond, which would require the former president to post a valid replacement bond in the same amount within seven days or face the possibility of James seizing his assets.
The attorney general argued that KSIC only had “a total policyholder surplus of just $138 million,” considerably less than the $175 million supposed to be guaranteed. New York State law requires companies that issue bonds to take on no liabilities that amount to more than 10 percent of their surplus.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.