A New York appeals court on MondayĀ reducedĀ the $454 million that former President Donald Trump was required to put up while he appeals his civil fraud case. Now Trump must put up, by April 4, a mere $175 million. The trouble is, he may not get a bond for that amount, either. Should that happen, this act of judicial mercy will end up feeling to Trump like a curse.
The stay deprives Trump of the only argument on which he was gaining any traction at allāthat the amount the court required him to put up was excessively high. Four hundred and fifty-four million was indeed an unusually large judgment against a private corporation or individual. (The distinction between Trump andĀ the Trump OrganizationĀ is paper-thin.) Mondayās appeals court decision doesnāt reduce that judgment, as New York State Attorney General Letitia James pointed out in a written statement. But it does dramatically reduce the amount Trump needs to turn over to the state while he pursues his appeal. It also gives us some hint that the appeals court may reduceĀ Judge Arthur Engoronās $454 million judgmentĀ to, well, $175 million.
The way you wrote that suggests something different than what the monitor does.
For one, they monitor after the fact. Likely one a month and after book close. So they donāt monitor in detail while it is happening. Secondly, transfers above a certain amount need to be reported. That amount can be an aggregate. Those need to be reported and I think the monitor needs to ok them before they can be executed.
Thatās quite different from what you seemed to suggest, meaning that the monitor needs to approve every check.
It was changed recently. The monitor has to be told ahead of time now.
https://www.businessinsider.com/how-nys-judge-engoron-is-tightening-the-leash-on-trump-2024-3
But only in some cases, not for everything. If a monitor would need to approve everything that would require quite a lot of people. A business often has quite a lot of regular invoices and so on.
You caught me in a minor technicality. Yes, they donāt need to ask the judge if they can buy lunch.
That doesnāt make a difference overall though. Trump is not going to hide meaningful amounts of money through lunch orders and paychecks.