Rachel Maddow asks the crucial question about Trump’s fraud tape

Rachel Maddow asked a question that will probably also have to be answered in court. What has Trump done to deserve such a generous bond?

Maddow said:

He would explicitly take real estate as collateral. That was no problem for him. Trump’s lawyers apparently never told the court that this man had offered to post the bail. In fact, they told the court that no one would post this bond. The appeals court apparently believed that no one would post the bond and then reduced the bond, reducing it to $175 million, which was then covered by this man who had already offered to post the much larger amount even though the court was told that Trump’s lawyers said no one would do that. What did Trump have to do to receive such generosity from a man who is not so generous after all. After all, a man who would illegally threaten to lock you up because you miss a car payment. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, whose bank charged a soul food restaurant in Harlem 268% interest on their business loan. A man who demanded daily payments from a small business in Massachusetts and charged over 90% interest to make things right doesn’t seem like someone involved in many super-generous business transactions. What is he asking Trump for this $175 million favor?

Reuters quote: Don Hankey, the billionaire businessman whose company provided the $175 million bond Trump posted in his New York civil fraud case, told Reuters that the fee his firm charged the former U.S. president for the bond was low. Hankey declined to disclose the compensation. Lawyers say surety companies typically charge a fee of one to two percent of the bond’s face value, which in this case would mean his fee should have been somewhere between $1.75 and $3 million. Quote. Hankey says he now feels his company didn’t charge Trump enough.

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Video:

The big question Trump and Hankey will have to answer in court is: what did Trump promise Hankey in exchange for this beloved deal?

There have been misleading reports that the bond has been thrown out and that Letitia James can seize Trump’s property, but this is not true. The hearing has not yet taken place, but when the hearing does take place and Hankey cannot prove that he is a legitimate and legal source of the bond, it could be thrown out and Trump will have to seek the bond again.

There are a lot of shady parts in the fraud bond.

They all deserve control.

This part of the story is not over yet.

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