Trump: $450 Million Bond Is Election Interference

Former President Donald Trump is charging that Judge Arthur Engoron’s $454 million civil fraud judgment against him aims to stymie his 2024 White House campaign by tying up cash “I intended to use in my campaign for president.”

He slammed Engoron as a “Corrupt, Radical Left Judge” and “Trump hater.”

In a series of Friday morning posts on Truth Social, Trump summarized his case before the judge as “NO TRIAL, NO JURY, NO CRIME, NO VICTIM, ONLY A CROOKED JUDGE AND A CORRUPT, TRUMP HATING ATTORNEY GENERAL, WHO TAKES HER ORDERS DIRECTLY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE. ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE!!!”

The AG reference is aimed at New York Attorney General Letitia James.

In one of the all-cap rants, Trump wrote: “THROUGH HARD WORK, TALENT, AND LUCK, I CURRENTLY HAVE ALMOST FIVE HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS IN CASH, A SUBSTANTIAL AMOUNT OF WHICH I INTENDED TO USE IN MY CAMPAIGN FOR PRESIDENT.”

He then laid into Enrogan and James, alleging they knew he was innocent but “WANTED TO TAKE IT AWAY FROM ME, AND THAT’S WHERE AND WHY [Enrogan] CAME UP WITH THE SHOCKING NUMBER WHICH, COUPLED WITH HIS CRAZY INTEREST DEMAND, IS APPROXIMATELY $454,000,000.”

“I DID NOTHING WRONG EXCEPT WIN AN ELECTION IN 2016 THAT I WASN’T EXPECTED TO WIN, DID EVEN BETTER IN 2020, AND NOW LEAD, BY A LOT, IN 2024.THIS IS COMMUNISM IN AMERICA!” he asserted.

In another Friday morning Truth Social post, he called James a “TRUMP HATING ATTORNEY GENERAL, WHO TAKES HER ORDERS DIRECTLY FROM THE WHITE HOUSE” — and alleged: “ELECTION INTERFERENCE AT A LEVEL NEVER SEEN BEFORE!!!”

Trump’s lawyers on Thursday reportedly pressed an appellate court to excuse him from covering a $454 million fraud suit judgment for now, saying he’d suffer “irreparable harm” before his appeal is decided.

The financial requirement is “patently unjust, unreasonable and unconstitutional,” one of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s lawyers, Clifford Robert, wrote in a letter to a New York appeals court.

Later Friday morning, Trump wrote: “So one Corrupt, Radical Left Judge in New York, a Trump hater a the highest level, can disobey and laugh at the Appellate Division Ruling that gives me victory, and confiscate New York property from me that took a lifetime of hard work to accumulate and build?”

“It sounds like COMMUNISM to me! THERE SHOULD BE NO FINE, I DID NOTHING WRONG.”

Trump has boasted in the past about his self-funding for a presidential campaign.

“Part of the beauty of me is that I’m very rich. So, if I need $600 million, I can put up $600 million myself. It’s a huge advantage,” he said in one interview in March 2011 before an aborted White House run. 

In a speech on June 16, 2015 to announce his candidacy, he asserted: “I don’t need anybody’s money. It’s nice. I don’t need anybody’s money. I’m using my own money. … I’m not using donors. I don’t care. I’m really rich.” 

Later the same year, Trump declared: “You know the nice part about me? I don’t need anybody’s money” during a speech in Iowa.  

“I’m self-funding my own campaign. It’s my money,” he said again on Feb. 1, 2016.

And in a Feb. 2, 2016, tweet he declared: “I don’t believe I have been given any credit by the voters for self-funding my campaign, the only one. I will keep doing, but not worth it!”