Experts Say Seizing Trump's Assets Won't Be Easy for Letitia James

Sarah Arnold reporting for Townhall 

The Monday deadline for former President Trump to pay his $464 million bond or risk having his assets seized in the corrupt city of New York ticks. 

However, reports admit that it won’t be as easy as New York Attorney General Letitia James just showing up and expecting the former president to hand over the keys to his properties. 

According to New York real estate attorneys, the process of taking over an individual’s assets is slow and taxing when the properties are comprised of several different ownership and titles, mortgages, and co-ownership claims.

James’ is subject to run into several different obstacles when acquiring the properties from Trump should he miss the deadline to pay the multi-million dollar bond. 

The same problem that Trump says he faces raising a bond against his properties is the same problem that James could find in liquefying his assets to satisfy the punishment brought in after she won a fraud trial against Trump’s real estate empire. 

“Bonds people do not like to use the property as collateral because it’s hard to liquify the asset if there’s a default,” said Adam Leitman Bailey, a real estate attorney, “and for the attorney general, this isn’t so easy either. It’s going to be very difficult to seize his properties. It takes a lot of work.”

First off James’s office is likely to send out a letter of garnishment to every bank in New York and the US requiring them to freeze Trump’s bank accounts and to deliver the cash, bonds, or possessions held in security deposit boxes to her office in New York. 

But New York is going through a commercial real estate crisis, and 40 Wall Street, despite being surrounded by high-end stores like Tiffany and Hermes is no exception.

Trump doesn’t own the property,” says Bailey. “They could sell the ground lease but the real estate market in commercial property is so down now it’s hard to know what it would go for, especially for assets that are inflated like Trump’s are.” 

There’s no certainty that the court’s $454 judgment will make it through the appeals process intact. Verdicts can be overturned on appeal, and the prosecution in the case used a legal statute rarely – if ever – used for this purpose. Via The Guardian. 

Trump’s legal team has argued that seizing the former president’s properties would do irreparable harm. 

The outlet also notes that if Trump has put his assets into a trust for his children, the GOP 2024 frontrunner no longer has control over the properties. 

“The attorney cannot touch anything in an irrevocable trust,” Bailey said. “Letitia James will be able to get the cash and the furniture but that won’t come anywhere near the judgment. James probably knows that she used an arcane statute not meant for this type of case, and knows the decision will get cut down on appeal. If she gets $100m that would be good news for her.”

On Friday, Trump’s lawyers announced that the former president secured the bond money. 

He also suggested selling his social media app, Truth Social to Digital World Acquisition Corp, which would make Trump nearly $4 billion richer.