Donald Trump won an appeal to put his $454 million civil fraud conviction on hold if he posts $175 million bail within 10 days, in a victory for the former US president that blocks authorities from taking steps to seize his assets. The decision by a mid-level state appeals court eases an acute cash crunch for Trump, who has said he would be forced to sell assets to post bail in the case.

The ruling delays enforcement of a judgment in a case in which Trump was found to have exaggerated his wealth to mislead investors and lenders, though it does not indicate how the appeals court might ultimately rule or address the merits of the case. New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office said Trump “continues to face accountability for his staggering fraud.”

“I greatly respect the appellate division’s decision and I will deposit the $175 million in cash or bonds or securities or whatever it takes, very quickly,” Trump told reporters at a New York courthouse.

Trump’s legal manoeuvring has delayed three of those criminal trials, although a New York judge ruled on Monday that the fourth case, involving hush money payments to a porn star, would begin on April 15.

Before the break was granted, Trump was facing a Monday deadline to meet the $454 million judgment, something he said he could not do. At that point, James could have asked a court to begin seizing his assets, including prized real estate such as 40 Wall Street in Manhattan.

In the New York civil case, Trump was found liable for fraudulently inflating his net worth by billions of dollars to obtain better terms on loans and insurance. However, the billionaire has said the case is a political vendetta by James, a Democrat.

Judge Arthur Engoron ruled that Trump had committed fraud by overvaluing properties such as his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, his penthouse at Trump Tower in Manhattan and several office buildings and golf courses. The trial focused primarily on how much Trump should pay in fines.

The criminal cases Trump faces stem from his efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat to Biden, his handling of classified documents after leaving office in 2021 and money paid before his 2016 election to a porn star who said she had a sexual encounter with him years earlier.

Current political context

In the midst of the accusations and trials that Donald Trump must face, the primary elections were held in the United States to begin to define the candidates for president of the nation. Trump, who was president between 2017 and 2021, is the only aspirant to lead the country on behalf of the Republican Party, since the rest of the candidates dropped out after the first results. Joe Biden, the current president, is the Democratic Party’s front-runner, so everything seems to indicate that on 5 November this year the same faces as in 2020 will be repeated.

The election day of 5 March, known as “Super Tuesday”, in which 15 states voted, ended with Biden winning the Democratic Party elections and Donald Trump leading the results in the Republican Party. However, Biden still fell short of the total number of delegates needed to become his party’s nominee.

What were the results after Super Tuesday? 

REPUBLICANS

For the Republican Party, the count indicated that Trump won 674 delegates, out of the 854 at stake on primary day. Projections indicated that he would receive 74% of the delegates available on the massive primary day. On Super Tuesday, 15 states voted to define the Republican front-runner: Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Massachusetts, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Vermont.

In 14 of the 15 states, the controversial former president won. The only exception is Vermont, where Nikki Haley beat the former president with 49.9% of the vote to Trump’s 45.9%.

DEMOCRATS

For President Joe Biden’s caucus, the Super Tuesday elections were held in 16 states – the same states where the Republican race was held – and American Samoa. Biden won in all but American Samoa, where he won over pre-candidate Jason Palmer.

On Super Tuesday, 1,420 of the 4,672 total Democratic delegates were at stake: 3,934 pledged delegates and 738 superdelegates (who are not pledged at the conventions).

Together with the previous primaries, Biden so far has 1,497 pledged delegates, with the understanding that these representatives will endorse his candidate at the Democratic National Convention, scheduled for next August.

For the blue caucus, a pre-candidate needs at least 1,968 delegates to vote in his or her favour at the National Convention to win the party’s presidential nomination.

Trump faces gag order in New York hush money criminal case

Donald Trump received a gag order from the judge barring him from publicly commenting on witnesses and court staff ahead of his April 15 criminal trial over money paid to a porn star to keep her quiet.

Judge Juan Merchan granted a request from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is prosecuting former president and now Republican nominee to lead the White House, Donald Trump

“His statements were threatening, inflammatory and denigrating,” Merchan wrote, referring to some of Trump’s previous attacks on witnesses, prosecutors and judges in various legal cases he faces. “These inflammatory extrajudicial statements impede the orderly administration of this court,” wrote the judge, who presides over the New York State Supreme Court.

Trump faces 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to conceal reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she claimed to have had with Trump a decade earlier. For his part, the former president denies having an encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

In a statement, Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung called the gag order unconstitutional, adding, “American voters have a fundamental right to hear the uncensored voice of the leading candidate for the highest office in the land.” In addition, Trump’s lawyers previously said a gag order would leave him defenceless against attacks by political opponents over the case.

Judge Merchan ruled on March 7 that jurors should remain anonymous except to Trump, his lawyers, prosecutors and a handful of others, after prosecutors highlighted Trump’s history of publicly mocking jurors.

The impending secret money trial is one of four criminal cases Trump faces ahead of the November 5 US election, and could be the only one to go to trial before the election. He pleaded not guilty to all of them and called them politically motivated.

In a separate civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, another state judge fined Trump $15,000 last year for twice violating a gag order against public comments about court personnel.

Trump faces state criminal charges in Georgia for his efforts to reverse his 2020 defeat to Biden, and federal criminal charges in Florida for his handling of confidential government documents after leaving the White House in 2021.