NYT Reporter Who Probed Trump’s Finances Says Lower Bond In NY Fraud Case is a ‘Definite Victory’ For His Business

Suzanne Craig, The New York Times reporter who has done many a deep dive into Donald Trump’s finances over the years, said the $175 million reduced bond he must now pay is still “significant,” and whether he’s able to pay it depends on how much cash he still has on hand after some major expenses, like paying a bond on the $88.3 million judgment to E. Jean Carroll.

A New York appeals court gave Trump a break, ruling he only had to come up with $175 million within the next 10 days, instead of the near $500 million bond he was due to pay Monday.

“Today they’ve ruled that he can post a lower bond,” Craig said. “The $175 million is significant,” she continued:

You know, it was coming to a point where we were, you know, wondering if he didn’t post the bond, if something didn’t happen today and he couldn’t pull it together, that Tish James could have moved in and started not only seizing assets but she could have gone after any available cash he has, that could have frozen his payroll, his ability to pay his vendors.

So, this is a reprieve not just in terms of time, there’s 10 extra days he has, but the number just seems more manageable to him. Of course, we don’t know how much cash he has on hand, you know, pretty much on any given day it’s a moving target depending on the demands of his cash with his business and other things he has going on. He’s indicated in depositions a year ago he had $400 million. We don’t know if that’s true or not. This certainly seems more in the range of what he might have on hand, you know, give or take. So it’s just a much more manageable number for him to deal with to post this bond.

Craig concluded, “I think when I saw this today, this is a definite victory for him. He has to post $175 million versus the, you know, 500-plus million dollars, and he gets 10 more days to pull that together.”

Watch the clip above via MSNBC.

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