Chuck Darwin<p>In 2021, the Boston Globe editorial board asked: “♦️Who owns the president?♦️”</p><p>It’s a reasonable question. We didn’t know the answer then. We still don’t.</p><p>Three years later, we have more than a half-billion reasons to ask that question. </p><p>Were he to be re-elected, his legal <a href="https://c.im/tags/debts" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>debts</span></a> would be a <a href="https://c.im/tags/national" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>national</span></a> <a href="https://c.im/tags/security" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>security</span></a> issue as well as a domestic one.</p><p>On Friday, Donald <a href="https://c.im/tags/Trump" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Trump</span></a> posted an $92,000,000 <a href="https://c.im/tags/bond" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>bond</span></a>, a promise to pay (with interest) writer E. Jean Carroll, who won her defamation case against Trump last year. <br>Trump also still owes Carroll $5 million award for her original defamation lawsuit.</p><p>Federal Insurance Company, a division of the insurance conglomerate <a href="https://c.im/tags/Chubb" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Chubb</span></a> Ltd., is managing Friday’s bond. 🔸That’s all we know.🔸</p><p>👉Trump’s court filing didn’t provide details on how he financed the $91.6 million bond. Nor did Chubb, which said, “as a matter of policy, we do not comment on client-specific information.” </p><p>The standard premium for appeal bonds is 2%, according to people familiar with the business. At that rate, Trump’s bond would have cost him $1.8 million, unless he negotiated a better rate.<br>Absent a fire sale of his trophy properties, or a sudden infusion of funds from an angel investor, Trump would most likely have to pledge some of his real estate assets as collateral for his next appeal bond. <br>And if those properties are encumbered in any way with mortgages or loans, the surety underwriter would have to devise a way to put the bond in a priority position.</p><p>Then there’s the issue of Trump himself, who has a checkered past when it comes to paying off debts (emphasis added)…<br>💥Does Trump have a relationship with the Chubb CEO? Is this bond a quid-pro-quo?💥<br>In 2018, Trump appointed Chubb’s CEO Evan Greenberg to a White House advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations.</p><p>According to Andrew Weissmann, former general counsel for the FBI:<br>👉[The] issue of who is actually behind [Trump’s bond] is something that people who are voting should know… who is the candidate beholden to? Is [Trump] going to be making policy and being differential to people who have put up money (emphasis added)?<br><a href="https://c.im/tags/followthemoney" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>followthemoney</span></a> </p><p><a href="https://themoderatevoice.com/follow-the-money-trumps-legal-peril-is-a-national-security-issue/" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">themoderatevoice.com/follow-th</span><span class="invisible">e-money-trumps-legal-peril-is-a-national-security-issue/</span></a></p>