Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum posed an uncomfortable question to Trump attorney Alina Habba, inquiring whether former President Donald Trump would be compelled to sell “almost all, if not all” of his New York assets to cover the bond for his fraud appeal.
On Friday, the trial in the fraud case, initiated by New York Attorney General Letitia James and overseen by Judge Arthur Engoron, reached a dramatic conclusion with a groundbreaking judgment. The ruling could potentially impose a financial burden exceeding $460 million on former President Donald Trump, inclusive of pretrial interest. Notably, a considerable bond amount must be provided upfront before Trump is allowed to initiate the appeal process.
During Monday night’s episode of Fox News Channel’s The Story with Martha MacCallum, host Martha MacCallum raised the speculation that has circulated, suggesting that former President Donald Trump might have to engage in a fire sale to cover the bonds and/or the judgment resulting from the recent legal proceedings. In response, Trump’s attorney Alina Habba asserted that there would be no such “mayhem” because Trump possesses “a lot of cash.”
MARTHA MACCALLUM: Let me ask you this in terms of the 30 day deadline from Judge Engoron to pay this extraordinary fine that that Jonathan Turley calls obscene. Is that the case? Does he really have 30 days to pay this fine. And if so, there are some reports that he will sell off almost all, if not all, of his New York assets. What can you tell us about that?
ALINA HABBA: No, I mean, I would never get into anything privileged, but I can tell you what the rules are. And within 30 days, even if we choose to appeal this, which we will, we have to post the bond, which is the full amount and some, and we will be prepared to do that.
MARTHA MACCALLUM: So. But how much is the bond?
ALINA HABBA: Well. So, it’s you have to break it up. So there were obviously individual defendants that got fined. There was the company that got fined. But you’re looking at roughly, let’s call it close to $400 million for something that he did nothing wrong.
Look, it’s no coincidence. And I’ll say it, they know by looking at his statements of financial condition that this guy is worth a lot of money, billions and billions of billions of dollars. And that didn’t even include his brand, Martha.
But what they’re trying to do between this case, between my last case is put him out of business. It’s not going to work. Number one. Number two, what they’re doing is a scare tactic.
Unfortunately, they picked the wrong guy to pick on in my opinion, because he’s strong, he’s resilient, and he happens to have a lot of cash.
Now that doesn’t mean that it’s right. It doesn’t mean it’s okay. It’s grotesquely insane. I was speaking to somebody today that actually mentioned that there are countries that literally make that in a given year in certain industries, countries in this world, but they would find somebody for what they call understating their statement of financial condition and making Deutsche Bank in Zurich, who, by the way, they still work withz, money. But they’re going to fine him, that kind of thing. It’s absolutely insane.
No, there will be no mayhem for the Trump Organization. Unfortunately. I know that probably was Miss James’s goal and Judge Engoron, but that is not going to be the case.
MARTHA MACCALLUM: Well, as I said, Jonathan Turley called it obscene. And other people have said people have said that it’s a dangerous verdict in the precedent that it sets. And what kind of damage it could do to New York City when other companies, will want nothing to do with that kind of, politics and judgment. So we’ll see where it goes.
