WASHINGTON — Donald Trump is in a huge bind. He can’t scrounge up enough cash to post a bond in his New York civil fraud case, where he faces a penalty of more than $454 million.
And in even more bad news for the former president, some of the wealthiest people in the country — members of an elite club known as the United States Senate — aren’t coming to his rescue.
Multiple Republican senators on Wednesday laughed off the suggestion they contribute to Trump’s accounts so he could post a bond in the case, which they roundly criticized as unfair.
“I’ve got about $12,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, chuckled when asked by HuffPost if he’d be willing to open up his wallet.
“I’m optimistic he’ll figure it out. He’s a pretty resourceful guy,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said. Scott, whose net worth is in the hundreds of millions, is one of the wealthiest senators and one of the few who could meaningfully contribute to Trump’s cause.
Trump was convicted of civil fraud last month for falsifying Trump Organization business records for decades. He was ordered by a New York judge to pay $355 million — the amount gained from the fraud plus interest. But the self-described billionaire has failed to convince 30 insurance companies to secure a bond needed to appeal the case, and now he’s facing the possibility that state authorities seize his properties in New York to cover the bill instead.
Trump raged about the decision in a post on his Truth Social website on Thursday and said it is “not possible” for bonding companies to secure the funds before this week’s deadline.
“That is CRAZY! If I sold assets, and then won the Appeal, the assets would be forever gone,” Trump wrote. “Also, putting up money before an Appeal is VERY EXPENSIVE. When I win the Appeal, all of that money is gone, and I would have done nothing wrong.”
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee is fundraising for his 2024…
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