What happens if Trump can’t secure $464m bond in civil fraud case? Here’s what to know

The Republican Party’s nominee to face President Joe Biden could be facing a financial crisis on top of a mountain of legal obligations, including 91 criminal charges, with at least one criminal trial and verdict expected before Election Day.

In a revealing court filing on 18 March, lawyers for Donald Trump said that he has tried to get help from at least 30 companies who can post a bond in excess of $454m after he lost a civil fraud trial in New York earlier this year.

But none of them could, and now he faces the “practical impossibility” of coming up with the money before the state’s imminent deadline to enforce the judgment against him, according to his attorneys.

The extraordinary circumstances also raise the prospect of the GOP’s presidential nominee being a convicted felon on the hook for tens of millions of dollars he doesn’t have when voters cast their ballots in November.

Mr Trump also cannot get rid of debts obtained by fraud by filing for bankruptcy.

Last month, Mr Trump got some relief after a judge agreed to halt a part of the judgment that would have effectively barred him from being able to borrow money. His lawyers sought that relief so that he could secure a bond as he appeals, they wrote in court filings.

Now, his legal team is asking a state appellate court to pause enforcement of the financial portion of the judgment, even if he’s not able to afford the bond that would pause collections while he’s appealing the entire ruling.

His attorneys have requested oral arguments to make their case.

A surety bond acts as a kind of paid guarantee to stall enforcement during an appeal.

But according to his legal team, the companies he approached are “unwilling” to use his star properties as collateral after a