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Former President Donald Trump posted $175 million bail on Monday in a New York civil fraud case. Meanwhile, a judge approved extending a gag order in Trump's hush-money case to the judge's family.
The bond was provided by California-based Knight Insurance Company, according to court filings. The move prevents New York Attorney General Letitia James from seizing President Trump's assets related to the case.
The bail news comes a week after the New York Court of Appeals reduced the amount Trump must post in bail from nearly $500 million to nearly $175 million, giving him 10 days to post bail. Announced. Mr. Trump paid well within that deadline. President Trump had argued that it would be “virtually impossible” to post bail to cover the $454 million civil fraud judgment. Because they don't have the cash to guarantee it at the moment.
Separately, Judge Juan Marchan announced last week's lawsuit aimed at preventing Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, from attacking witnesses, jurors, prosecutors and their families in the case. The gag order was also extended to Trump's family. In his ruling, Marchan rejected Trump's claim that his own statements “constitute the core of political speech.”
President Trump has targeted Marchan's daughter in social media posts. Monday's gag order does not extend to Marchand himself or to Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who brought the case. Both have been the subject of the former president's ire. President Trump has said, without evidence, that the case against him is politically motivated.
Jury selection in the hush money case begins April 15.
Trump was accused of multiple counts of falsifying business records to keep secret allegations of an affair during the final stages of his 2016 campaign. Although the scope of his criminal trial in New York is likely to be relatively less serious, it would be a historic first against a sitting or former president.