Legal analyst Nick Akerman recently told CNN that former President Donald Trump’s all-caps rant claiming to have “ALMOST FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH” is the “dumbest thing” he could have done via Mediaite.
There has been a lot of speculation as to how Trump will pay the bond to appeal payment of the fraud judgment that could cost him over $460 million if appeals are unsuccessful. The deadline for that bond, if the appeals court doesn’t intervene, is Monday.
But in an early-morning Truth Social post Trump ranted that “THROUGH HARD WORK, TALENT, AND LUCK, I CURRENTLY HAVE ALMOST FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH, A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF WHICH I INTENDED TO USE IN MY CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT.”
On Friday’s edition of CNN News Central, anchor John Berman roasted Trump as “not the best arbiter” of how much money he actually has, but it was Akerman who put the finest point on the fact that Trump is claiming to have money to pay a bond his lawyers claim he can’t post:
JOHN BERMAN: So so Kara, this claim, which now turns out to be specious, it turns out to be not him saying I’ve got $500 million, but saying that is what I had or have earned. Didn’t he a few days ago said it was impossible for him to come up with that money? I mean, in an actual court filing.
KARA SCANNELL: Right? I mean, he was saying he does not have enough cash to secure a bond because all of these insurance companies that he talked to, they will only take cash or stock. They will not take property as collateral.
And he’s — and based on the bond size plus the extra amount that he has to add to the bond in order to to post, it will come up to more than half $1 billion. And even if you go by the math that I just kind of went through, that means he has about $350 million and that’s to run the company. So that’s not even enough to cover the ultimate collateral to get the bond.
JOHN BERMAN: So I guess what I’m — but if you’re the appeals court who’s got to decide whether to reduce the money or not, won’t you look at this post on Truth Social and say, “Wait a second, you just told me you have the money, you’re saying it’s impossible, you know, why, why should we give you any grace here if you’re saying you’ve got it?”
NICK AKERMAN: That’s right. I mean, that is the dumbest thing he could have possibly done, to put that on Truth Social, because that is a direct admission by him that he has the money.
Now, keep in mind, even with this operating money or cash that he supposedly has, if he doesn’t pony up and put up a bond, Letitia James is going to be able to go in and basically put restraining orders on all of his bank accounts.
Everything that relates to him and all of that money is going to be tied up and frozen. So if he’s really got that money, he’s got to put it up.
