CNN chief legal analyst Paula Reid was recently stunned by a dramatic last-minute appeals court ruling that she said handed former President Donald Trump an “incredible win” allowing him more time to pay a reduced amount on his fraud appeal bond via Mediaite.
It has been noted that Trump began Monday ranting about the $460 million-plus sword hanging over his head, but while he sat in court for a hearing on the Stormy Daniels hush money case, the appeals court ruled he could have an additional ten days to post a reduced amount of $175 million in order to proceed with his appeal.
CNN anchor Kaitlan Collins reported live outside the courthouse during Monday afternoon’s edition of CNN’s Inside Politics, and brought in Reid to explain the breaking news:
KAITLAN COLLINS: I want to bring in CNN’s Paula Reid. And, Paula, we were just here in Trump as he was walking into there, not talking about what’s happening inside the courtroom, but instead talking about this decision by the appeals court.
He said he will pay this in the next ten days. It’s not clear entirely how, but it is way, way less than what he was initially believing he was going to have to put up.
PAULA REID: This is huge! And we saw him head into this court hearing several hours ago. He barely spoke to cameras. He was sort of looking down, hunched over inside the court. He was facing a possibility that at the end of the day, the attorney general of New York could start the process of seizing his assets.
And now he has been handed this incredible win, this lifeline from the appeals court that says he only has to put up $175 million, not the nearly $500 million that he was unable to to get either underwritten or post.
And then they’ve also reined in some other aspects of that civil fraud verdict. He and his sons can continue to run businesses and seek loans in the state of New York, and they’ve also put off the attorney general’s ability to enforce this judgment until September.
So this is an enormous victory for former President Trump in terms of the civil fraud verdict.
Now, one of his lawyers in the civil fraud case, Alina Habba, just released a statement saying that they’re very pleased with this ruling and they believe that it reigns in some of the judge’s verdicts, which they, of course, believe is, quote, an affront to all Americans.
This is the first important step in what will be a continued fight, because they are appealing that decision.
Now. Kaitlan, it’s not expected that they will win on an appeal. But this issue of the bond, this has been hanging over Trump and a huge victory for him.
