Rachel Maddow raised a question that may need to be addressed in court as well. What did Trump do to warrant such a lenient bond?
Maddow stated:
He explicitly mentioned that he would use real estate as collateral, which was not a problem for him. Trump's lawyers seem to have not informed the court about this person's offer to post the bond. Instead, they told the court that no one would do so. The appeals court, believing that no one would provide the bond, then reduced it to $175 million, a sum covered by this person who had originally offered a much larger amount, despite Trump's lawyers informing the court that no one would do so. What did Trump have to do to receive such generosity from a man who, despite not being very generous, would even threaten to illegally imprison someone for missing a car payment? As per the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, his bank charged a Harlem soul food restaurant 268% interest on a business loan. He also demanded daily payments from a small business in Massachusetts, charging over 90% interest. This doesn't seem like the actions of a person involved in many very generous business transactions. What is he charging Trump for this $175 million favor?
According to Reuters, Don Hankey, the billionaire businessman whose company provided the $175 million bond that Trump posted in his New York civil fraud case, told Reuters that the fee his firm charged the former US president for the bond was considered low. Hankey declined to disclose the fee. Lawyers suggest that surety companies typically charge a fee ranging between one and 2% of the face value of the bond, which in this instance would mean his fee should have been between 1.75 and $3 million. Hankey now feels that his company did not charge Trump enough.
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The key question that Trump and Hankey will have to address in court is what did Trump promise Hankey in exchange for this favorable deal?
There have been some inaccurate reports stating that the bond has been invalidated and Letitia James can start seizing Trump's property, but this is not true. The hearing has not taken place yet. However, if Hankey fails to prove that he is a legitimate and legal source of the bond during the hearing, it could be invalidated, and Trump will have to search for a new bond.
There are numerous questionable aspects to the fraud bond.
All of these aspects need to be carefully examined.
This part of the story is far from over.
