Donald Trump is close to the deadline to post bond in his fraud trial—and he’s screwing himself over even more.

After having reached out to several guarantors and 30 suretors for help posting his $464 million New York bank fraud bond, Donald Trump suddenly wants everyone to know he actually does have the cash.

In a bizarre rant on Friday morning, the man who was found to have defrauded banks and investors by overvaluing himself and the value of his properties claimed that he had accrued the wealth by way of “HARD WORK, TALENT, AND LUCK.”

Trump also admitted he has nearly half a billion dollars in cash.

The confession directly contradicts a filing from his legal team last month arguing that it would be “impossible” to secure a bond covering the full amount of the multimillion-dollar ruling.

Trump’s words will surely help out New York Attorney General Letitia James, who on Wednesday urged an appeals court to ignore Donald Trump’s latest effort to worm his way out of paying the $464 million disgorgement from his bank fraud trial.

  • Buffalox@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Quote from Trump on truth social shown in the article:

    THE OFTEN OVERTURNED POLITICAL HACK JUDGE ON THE RIGGED AND CORRUPT A.G. CASE

    Can they not sue him for libel on this?

    Apart from that it’s hilarious that he still tries to claim he is paying for his presidential campaign himself.

    • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Courts generally consider broad statements like “rigged” and “corrupt” to be opinions, which by themselves are not grounds for libel. Libel requires stating specific false facts.

      For example, “The election was rigged” is an opinion. But “Two Georgia election workers threw away GOP ballots” is libel.

      • NovaPrime@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        Libel requires stating specific false facts

        I know what you mean and what you’re intending here but there is no such thing as “false facts.” It’s lies.

        The election was rigged" is an opinion.

        It is not. It’s a bool statement - true or false. The election was not rigged, that’s a fact. Stating otherwise is a lie.

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          “Rigged” is an opinion.

          I don’t think it was rigged, but people routinely claim that due to the way the Electoral College works, all presidential elections are “rigged” in favor of the GOP. Similar claims have been made of recent Democratic primaries. Or that elections are rigged in favor of wealthy candidates, or incumbents.

          Courts aren’t going to decide whether it’s true that something is “rigged”, they need something more concrete.

      • ericatty@lemmy.ml
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        8 months ago

        What about “often overturned”? That seems like a fact that could potentially be proven or disproven.

        Especially if the judge has never been overturned, or never/rarely overturned in the context or timeframe of these cases. Assuming that is a false fact for this judge, I don’t know his stats.

        Another judge on his cases has been potentially been “often overturned” based on percentages of total cases/rulings?

        • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          “Often” is an opinion about something that has happened. Just like “a lot”.

          Suppose I said “Boeing aircraft often fail” and you haven’t kept up with the news. You can conclude that they have failed, but you won’t know how many times unless you ask more questions.

    • TransplantedSconie@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      That opens an attack avenue for appeal. Do nothing until he can’t appeal it, then you blindside him with libel and take another 100 mill.

      • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Read it again. There is no slanderous or libelous statement, as dumb as it is. Somebody was handling the wording very carefully.

        “OFTEN OVERTURNED” - Haven’t looked into it, but possible fact or subjective to the speaker’s point of view at the very least.

        “POLITICAL HACK JUDGE” - Derogatory at best, and not mentioning the specific names or false allegation.

        “CORRUPT AG CASE” - Again, subjective, and referring the case, not the AG or Judge.

        What a fucking idiot to invite more consternation, but unless you specifically say something like “Judge Tom Smith took bribe money to fuck over my case”, there isn’t a solid argument for Libel or Slander.

            • Beryl@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              English isn’t my first language, but I’d read it more like " the case brought by the corrupt AG" rather than " the corrupt case brought by the AG".

            • just_another_person@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Exactly. If he had made a corruption allegation against the AG directly, then there is a possible case.

              This shithead spends 24/7 with caretakers carefully wording his every sentence outside of speeches because he just definitively lost a defamation case, TWICE. I’d be surprised if he gets off the leash enough to actually do it again. Terrible lawyers if he does.

              • NovaPrime@lemmy.ml
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                8 months ago

                You paint him and his sycophants as pr masterminds suddenly, something they’re certainly not and have never been. You attribute too much intelligence and competence to him and his people.

      • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Contempt of court only applies to behavior in the courtroom, or when the judge has issued a specific order.

        Trump isn’t in the courtroom and was never banned from criticizing the judge or prosecutor, so there is no basis for contempt of court.

          • FlowVoid@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Right, because Judge Engoron intentionally left himself and the prosecutor out of his gag order.

            Wisely so, because otherwise it would have been overturned. Everyone has a 1st Amendment right to criticize public officials like judges and prosecutors, but staff not so much.

    • mozz@mbin.grits.dev
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      8 months ago

      It seems like bad precedent for a judge to sue a participant in the trial for what they’re saying about the trial.

      He could hold Trump in contempt, but I think he doesn’t see the reason to bother with it, since he’s already engaged in fucking Trump’s world up pretty significantly.

      Plus, if he did sue for libel, how would he ever get paid? It’s like a never ending cycle.

      • skulblaka@startrek.website
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        8 months ago

        Plus, if he did sue for libel, how would he ever get paid?

        It’s hardly even about getting paid at this point, I just want to see them rack up the high score. Left to his own devices I’m very confident that Trump can increase his own punitive damages beyond the actual GDP of the US.

    • ricecake@sh.itjust.works
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      8 months ago

      The burden for libel or slander on a public official is pretty high. It pretty much has to go well past criticizing the government in an unambiguous way because government officials prosecuting people for criticizing them is Bad™

      I doubt you’d see anything unless he claimed the judge did some specific act of moral turpitude on a specific occasion.
      Yelling at the government about mismanagement and impropriety is just about as close as you can get to what the first amendment is for, in a nutshell.

      The fact that he’s wrong and a loathsome asshole doesn’t change that he’s allowed to say it.