- After his team cited hardship in securing funding, Trump's civil fraud trial bond was cut to $175 million.
- ProPublica reported a billionaire businessman offered to post the original $464 million amount due.
- By failing to report the offer, Trump's legal team may have violated ethics rules, ProPublica found.
Donald Trump's recent complaints about being unable to afford his civil fraud trial bond may have been misleading to the court, according to a new report from ProPublica.
The outlet reported Friday that, despite Trump's legal team calling the original $464 million an "impossible bond requirement" and claiming he'd been rejected by 30 firms he'd approached to raise the money, the former president had already received an offer from billionaire businessman Don Hankey to post the full amount.
"I saw that they were rejected by everyone, and I said, 'Gee, that doesn't seem like a difficult bond to post,'" Hankey told ProPublica. Hankey told the outlet he reached out to Trump's representatives days before the bond was lowered, expressing a willingness to use real estate as collateral for the loan — which Trump's lawyers indicated other firms were unwilling to do.
The bond was ultimately slashed to $175 million, saving Trump hundreds of millions of dollars, before it was posted by Knight Specialty Insurance Company, Hankey's business.
Hankey told the outlet that, though he is a Trump supporter, he would have done the deal regardless of his personal beliefs. He suggested the former president was struggling to secure an appeal bond not because he lacked the liquidity to back the deal but because, for public companies, "maybe you don't want to offend 45% of the population" by visibly backing Trump.
It remains unclear whether Trump's legal team was aware of negotiations between Hankey and Trump's representatives to post the full $464 million amount, which was underway when the bond was reduced. However, legal experts told Business Insider, that if his lawyers knew about the offer and failed to notify the court, they may have violated ethics rules.
After the outlet contacted Trump's representatives, Hankey reached back out to ProPublica. In the second conversation, he told ProPublica that accepting Trump's real estate as collateral would have been complicated, and the deal would have been "difficult."
What happens now?
According to the New York State Bar Association, attorneys are bound to the NY Rules of Professional Conduct, as adopted by the Appellate Division of the State Supreme Court.
"Attorneys who violate the law or fail to abide by this code of conduct are subject to discipline, which may include admonishment, reprimand, censure, suspension or loss of his or her license to practice law," the NYSBA website reads.
Two legal experts told Business Insider that if Trump's attorneys knew of the negotiations surrounding Hankey's offer as they appealed to the court for a lower bond amount, it would likely be an ethics violation.
"If Trump's lawyers knew it was possible for him to secure a bond for the full amount when they filed their appeal, then their misrepresentation may be an ethics violation and a fraud on the court," former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani told Business Insider. However, he noted it would be difficult to prove what Trump's lawyers knew and when they knew it.
Andrew Lieb, a litigation attorney and legal analyst, told Business Insider the conduct of Trump's attorneys in this matter appears to be "a clear violation" of rule 3.3 of the NY Rules of Professional Conduct, which states lawyers shall not knowingly make false statements of fact to the court and that they shall make "reasonable remedial measures," including disclosure to the court if they come to know of a falsehood.
"Should Trump's lawyers be found to violate this rule, they should expect an ethics charge be levied against them, which can result in anything from a private letter in their file all the way up to a suspension from practice," Lieb told BI.
He added: "Moreover, the timing of when they found out isn't relevant because according to the rule, they need to take reasonable remedial measures to correct the falsity of the evidence or statement, even if they learned of it after the fact."
The Trump campaign, lawyers representing the former president in his civil fraud case, and Knight Specialty Insurance Company representatives did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.