A judge orders Trump to pay the full amount of bail to appeal the $454 million fine |

Donald Trump easily won the Republican primary in Michigan on Tuesday, but a few hours later he suffered a serious defeat in his attempt to stop the payment of the $355 million fine that a New York judge imposed on him last week for fraud. continued in his businesses. With interest, the Republican candidate for the November presidential elections already owes 454.2 million, given that the fine increases at a rate of 112,000 dollars a day. But, according to a provisional order issued today, the former president must provide the entire amount as bail, and not the scarce one hundred million that he has presented to try to stop the counter, even provisionally.

Given that most of his fortune consists of real estate, his liquidity is limited, and the former president is considering selling some of his properties to meet the payment. Or turn to partners and supporters, such as foreign banks and investors in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia, billionaire friends in the US and some unregistered banks in New York, which are cited as the most likely lenders. The good offices of his son-in-law, Jared Kuhsner, in the petro-monarchies of the Gulf – he was the architect of the so-called Abraham Accords – would now be of great help if he finally had to go into debt to get out of the legal trance. His exorbitant legal expenses have also diminished his financial capacity.

The decision by Associate Justice Anil Singh of the New York Appellate Division has yet to be upheld by the state appeals court. Despite the financial blow, Singh did agree to Trump’s request to partially suspend the judge’s decision to prohibit him from running any company in New York or requesting loans from the state’s banks for three years.

Thus, the counter for the million-dollar fine for civil fraud – for exaggerating his net worth and the value of his real estate to deceive lenders for a decade – is still active, and the Republican has a period of only 30 days to satisfy the bond. If Trump’s insolvency – lack of liquidity, rather – is confirmed, the authorities might seize part of his assets, as announced last week by the New York Attorney General, Democrat Letitia James, whose team investigated the case. . As this was a civil process, neither Trump nor his children, also convicted, faced prison sentences.

This Wednesday’s ruling will also allow Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, his eldest sons, to continue running the family business, although each will have to deposit more than four million dollars or secure a bond for that amount to continue with their own appeals.

Prosecutor James’s office believes that nothing prevents Trump from obtaining bail from an insurer, although one of the magnate’s lawyers maintains that the bonds require cash and that is the biggest handicap. The 30-day period for Trump to post bail began on February 23, so he will have to pay before March 25, just when jury selection begins for another trial, in this criminal case, for the case of Stormy Danielsthe payment of a bribe to a porn actress to buy her silence regarding an extramarital affair before the 2016 elections. As in the rest of the pending trials, three other criminal and two civil trials, including business fraud , Trump has pleaded not guilty.

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