I don’t think that’s how it works. Trump owes Carroll 90+ million. She gets that in cash. It’s up to Trump how he gets that cash to her; Mortgages property, sells property, gets a bond company to front the cash (presumably by putting up assets that they can take if/when he loses).
Edit: I suppose Trump might have just stonewalled her after the appeal. Her lawyers would then have had to go the collections route. Putting liens on property, confiscating assets via a sheriff etc. It would have dragged it out.
However, As Procrustus says above, with Chubb putting up the bond, this just made Carroll’s collection way, way easier. Now if/when Trump loses the appeal, she gets the money right away. And it’s then up to Chubb to do the collections, using the legal documents they have to go after the assets that were the guarantee.
What is the possible upside for Chubb in this? Did they do a legal analysis and figure he’ll win the appeal? If the fee is 1:1 I still wouldn’t do it. I always assumed that bonds were for a small-ish percentage of the total. That seems like a really shitty bet on Chubb’s part…
My WAG is that Chubb has set it up so that if he loses the appeals and then defaults they can grab assets that aren’t encumbered by mortgages in a prior position, assets that they can take without much difficulty.
And what about the other 400 million or so judgment he needs to get a bond for? My WAG there is that getting the Carroll bond has actually made getting the bigger one harder, since he’ll have had to put up his best collateral for Chubb (no fools they) to take on the risk.
Been discussed upthread, but yes I agree with you - what’s the upside for Chubb?
I really don’t think the odds are good for Trump to prevail on appeal. Maybe they figure the amount will be reduced by a significant percentage though.
If Trump loses the appeal in entirety Chubb will have to go through Mr. “Delay, delay, delay, no I won’t pay you anything, will you take 10 cents on the dollar” Trump. Good luck with that.
If Trump wins the election they are likely out the money. Trump will never pay their fee either.
Are they collecting interest on this bond, from Trump? Maybe they’re of the assumption that between what he had to put down to get the bond, plus the interest, will cover the entire amount before the end of the appeal. If their agreement has him paying interest every week (or day or month), it would be in default quickly enough.
But, is that a thing? Can a bond be called if the defendant doesn’t stay current on the payments? Also, would a bond be set up such that they defendant would have to make payments, even if they’re interest only, on it the entire time?
I would be willing to bet Trump had to hand over the deed on some actual property he owns to be held by Chubb and Chubb made sure the property was easily worth the cash they are putting up and had no liens on it. If Trump cannot pay them back, with interest, they get that property (maybe more than one).
I’m not sure Trump is really that bad of a risk for Chubb. As the Republican nominee, he now gets to raid the PACs, the RNC, and right wing idiots to pay for his stuff. He spent almost half a billion to get elected in 2016, so shaving off a chunk of that to pay Chubb isnt a problem. And, if he does win the election, he’ll have little to no problem raiding US coffers and taking backdoor money from Putin and the Saudis for hundreds of millions more.
Chubb’s betting the American people are fucking idiots. Thats not a bad bet.
So Trump promised not to use the RNC money as his own? And the committee believed him? That breeze they feel? That’s the leopard, right there breathing on their faces. Dumbasses. They deserve everything they get.
Trump needs to raise about $400,000 per day, every day between now and the election in November to cover that cost (rough calculation). That’s a lot even for his rubes to come up with.
This article suggests Trump called in a big favor:
It turns out that Trump may have called in a major favor: Court records filed Friday show that the bond was guaranteed by the Chubb Corporation, an insurance group. In 2018, Trump appointed Chubb’s CEO Evan Greenberg to a White House advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations.