Trump desperately begs MAGA supporters to help him pay $464m fraud bond: Live – The Independent

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Former president’s lawyers admitted earlier this week that raising the money was proving a ‘practical impossibility’ as New York attorney general Letitia James circles his assets, including Trump Tower
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Donald Trump has issued a panicky fundraising memo to his supporters entitled “Keep your filthy hands off Trump Tower!” as the Monday deadline to pay his $464m bond in the New York fraud judgement against him ticks ever closer.
”KEEP YOUR FILTHY HANDS OFF TRUMP TOWER!” the mailout reads. “Insane radical Democrat AG Letitia Jameswants to SEIZE my properties in New York. THIS INCLUDES THE ICONIC TRUMP TOWER!”
Mr Trump’s lawyers notified an appeals court this week that their client has failed to raise the money to cover the bond, saying finding a surety company to help them was proving a “practical impossibility”.
Asked in an interview with Fox News on Wednesday whether Mr Trump could look to wealthy overseas donors in Russia or Saudi Arabia for help, Trump attorney Alina Habba did not rule it out, stating instead that she could not discuss strategy.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee did score one win yesterday when the judge overseeing his election interference case in Georgia issued a certificate of immediate review allowing the former president and his co-defendants to appeal the decision to allow Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis to remain on the case against them.
Joe Sommerlad reports:
Lawyers for Donald Trump notified an appeals court this week that their client has failed to secure a bond to satisfy the $464m civil fraud judgment levelled against him by a New York court, saying finding a company to back such a large amount of money was proving a “practical impossibility”.
Mr Trump has hotly objected to a “fire sale” of his property empire – selling off assets to generate cash to meet the bond – but failing to do so risks allowing such prized properties as Trump Tower in Manhattan, so integral to his brand, to fall into the hands of New York attorney general Letitia James, who has already said she is more than happy to repossess his holdings.
Read more…
New York attorney general ready to lay claim to Republican presidential candidate’s prized properties with time running out for him to meet colossal bond deadline
As part of the ruling against Donald Trump and the Trump Organization, Justice Arthur Engoron has laid out the terms of the monitorship of the company that will last for three years.
In November 2022, the court named retired judge Barbara S Jones to the position of monitor. An independent director of compliance will also be appointed.
The general duties and responsibilities of the monitor are:
During the Term of the monitorship, the Monitor shall review Defendants’ internal accounting controls, governance, record-keeping, and financial reporting policies and procedures. The Monitor shall also review Defendants’ compliance with internal accounting controls, including any recommended and/or ordered financial and accounting procedures. The Monitor shall also establish a protocol to review Defendants’ preparation and presentation of financial disclosures prior to their issuance to third parties.
The company will also have to provide the monitor all information regarding the proposed transfer, dissolution, or restructuring of assets or debts.
The monitor will provide quarterly written reports to the court and will advise the court of any actions by the defendants that circumvent or violate the terms of the monitorship. Should this happen, the court can modify the terms of the order, including its length, and the monitor may request modifications should she find it necessary in order to carry out her duties.
Read the full order from Judge Engoron here…
A federal judge has indicated that former Trump fixer Michael Cohen may have committed perjury.
In a written order rejecting Cohen’s request for early release from the Manhattan court’s supervision, Judge Jesse Furman appeared to doubt that Cohen had been telling the truth ahead of former President Donald Trump’s criminal trial in the hush money case in New York.
Cohen was previously sentenced to three years in prison for tax evasion, lying to Congress and banks, and campaign finance violations.
Gustaf Kilander reports:
The hush money trial, in which the former Trump fixer is a top witness, has been delayed to at least the middle of next month
Here’s more on Trump asking: “Brother, can you spare a dime?”
Former president blasts New York Attorney General Letitia James as an ‘insane radical’ in a desperate plea for cash – claiming Democrats are trying to ‘intimidate’ him into abandoning his campaign for the White House
Peter Navarro, a former trade adviser to Donald Trump, surrendered to authorities on 19 March to begin a four-month sentence at a prison near Miami, Florida, after he was convicted on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress.
Less than 24 hours earlier, the US Supreme Court had denied his last-ditch attempt to stay his sentence pending an appeal against his conviction.
The former Trump aide was convicted in September over his refusal to comply with two subpoenas from the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol riot – one asking him to provide documents related to the former president’s efforts to stay in power after losing the 2020 election, the other to testify at its hearings.
Prior to entering the facility, Navarro, 74, delivered a brief press conference in a parking lot in which he attempted to portray himself as a martyr to Democrat-led persecution in grandiose terms and, like Mr Trump, baselessly bemoaned “the partisan weaponisation of our judicial system”.
Navarro is the first member of Trump’s inner circle to see the inside of a jail cell in connection to the Capitol riot but is only the latest to hit the rocks by association with his political brand.
Few who involve themselves with Trump seem to come out of it enriched by the experience and some – notably his one-time personal attorney Rudy Giuliani – find themselves facing disgrace or financial hardship.
Many former members of Trump’s administration between 2017 and 2021 have since turned against him and refused to endorse his latest presidential run, often leading to them being ostracised from the MAGA movement and re-emerging as outspoken critics of his conduct.
But only a handful have actually ended up behind bars.
Navarro aside, here’s a look at the other former Trump associates who have done time over their involvement with the former president.
Peter Navarro is just the latest in a growing list of the former president’s cronies to end up behind bars
The Biden campaign has been attempting, and apparently succeeding, at recruiting donors to the now-suspended campaign of former UN ambassador Nikki Haley.
Here’s more from Gustaf Kilander.
‘People I know who are generally business Republicans, they’re going to hear from me,’ former MGM executive and Haley donor says
Here’s more from Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s response to the Trump team’s alleged issues with discovery:
On March 8, 2024 defendant filed a motion alleging a grab-bag of meritless discovery arguments in the latest of a long series of attempts to evade responsibility for the conduct charged in the indictment. … Defendant’s motion and subsequent filings are a transparent attempt to shift the focus away from his own criminal conduct by pursuing remedies to which he is not entitled, including dismissal, a lengthy adjournment, and preclusion of evidence.
…
Defendant has taken every possible step to evade accountability in this case for more than a year. He sought to deter the grand jury from considering the charges by promising “death and destruction” if indicted. He sought to intimidate the District Attorney and this Office by posting a photo of himself wielding a baseball bat at the back of the District Attorney’s head.
…
Enough is enough. These tactics by defendant and defense counsel should be stopped. A Grand Jury of regular New Yorkers indicted Donald Trump on thirty-four felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal criminal efforts to corrupt the 2016 presidential election. This Court held that the evidence supported those charges. The People respectfully urge this Court to reject defendant’s motion in its entirety and, after the scheduled hearing on March 25, proceed to trial on the timeline set forth by the Court in its March 15 order.
Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has responded to Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss the hush money criminal case based on discovery violations.
“Contrary to defendant’s arguments, the USAO’s responses to his subpoena do not support any claim of a discovery violation by the People or prosecutorial misconduct that would warrant more drastic relief.”
“Ultimately, defendant’s focus on purported discovery violations is a red herring.”
“Moreover, the belated nature of the recent USAO productions is entirely a result of defendant’s own inexplicable and strategic delay in identifying perceived deficiencies in the People’s disclosures and pursuing independent means to obtain that evidence.”
Further, the DA’s office points out that after a thorough review of the material from the USAO “fewer than an estimated 270 documents, most of which are inculpatory and corroborative of existing evidence …. have not previously been disclosed to defendant”.
“The overwhelming majority of the production is entirely immaterial, duplicative or substantially duplicative of previously disclosed materials, or cumulative of evidence concerning Michael Cohen’s unrelated federal convictions that defendant has been on notice about for months.”
Mr Bragg argues that there should be no further relief beyond the 30-day extension to trial preparation already given.
You can read the full filing here…
And here’s our earlier reporting to help you get up to speed:
Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg had supported the delay
There is a hearing scheduled for Monday — which was supposed to be the start date of the trial — concerning the alleged issues with discovery.
Andrew Feinberg reports:
Mr Biden, who was on the second day of a three-day trip to several Western states, told attendees at the campaign event that a person had approached him to talk about a high debt burden.
“Just the other day this defeated looking man came up to me and said: ‘Mr. President I need your help. I’m in crushing debt. I’m completely wiped out,’” he said.
After a moment, Mr Biden delivered the punchline, telling the crowd that he had responded: “Donald, I’m sorry. I can’t help you”.
Read more…
President is on a three-day campaign swing out west this week
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