Donald Trump reportedly used a bail bondsman after being arrested at Fulton County Jail in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday, paying $20,000 of his bond set at $200,000 and taking out a loan for the rest of it. The fact that the former president resorted to such a measure has sparked questions on social media about the state of his finances.
His finances are a revolving door of debt, I’d wager any money he gets has to be sent paying back the more dangerous of loans he has taken out.
My first thought as well.
We all know he’s not nearly as wealthy as he likes to pretend, but it’d be nearly impossible to live his lifestyle without at least 200,000 in available cash.
Likely he’s using his so-called “genius” business brain to intentionally Welch on the debt and snag himself a cool 90% discount on his bail.
Why pay 200 when you can pay 20
You pay 20 in cash because you get 20 in cash back if you show up to court
If you take a loan with a bondsman, you lose a fee. 5 of the 20 is lost because you used a bondsman. Only get 15 back after you show up to court.
You don’t want to use a bondsman unless you have to
Maybe he anticipates more than 10% inflation before his court date and is just making smart money moves?
No
You lose money using a bondsman
There is a bail bond fee or premium associated with using a bondsman
This is non-refundable to trump.
If he comes up with the cash himself and cuts out the bondsman he would get all his money back from the court after showing up to court.
Bondsman gets all money back if trump shows up to court. They are not losing a penny. But making money because of the fee or premium.
Only way it would make sense is if he was really trying to skip town. Then, losing fee would be less than 10% of the bond.
They aren’t obligated to break the law and harbor Trump. They’re law enforcement, not bodyguards. The bounty hunter either talks to them about the situation, or a federal marshal does. Either way the results is they organize a very tight security detail around the arrested and jailed former president.
People in Atlanta may not know how he does business in New York and Florida.
Why pay $200k when you can pay $20k and then refuse to repay the other $180k?
Because if you pay the $200k you get it back when the case is over. The $20k is gone forever.
That’s assuming the judge doesn’t decide you’ve violated the bond conditions forfeit the bond. If that happens, the bondsman’s going to go after you for the full $200k in addition to what you paid though, and you still wind up $20k poorer than if you put up the full amount in the first place.
What probably happened is that he plans to use his usual delaying tactics and run the case out for several years, so his accountants decided they could earn at least 11% on the remaining $180k by the time the case is up, making it cheaper to pay the $20k up front.
That or he’s using his other favorite tactic and found a bondsman that’s on the verge of going bankrupt and he’s planning to stiff him and betting the guy won’t have enough money to take him to court over it. That said, he could also be in financial trouble. It’s been well known for a long time now that Trump pretends like his finances are MUCH better than they actually are, with him regularly bleeding money on failed ventures. There’s a reason he’s basically been running grifts for decades and just slapping his name on successful things run by other people instead of his own businesses. He was probably counting on using campaign funds and donations to cover his legal costs and got told he couldn’t, and his usual sugar daddies aren’t willing to pour money into him considering how unlikely he is to beat the current slate of charges.
It’s also interesting that he recently “sold” Mar-A-Lago, although since he “sold” it to his son the move is more likely just to protect the property if he does end up in jail. Could also be to provide him some liquidity to cover his legal costs.
He’s got 24/7 secret service protection just like every former president. I don’t think there’s any way he can actually flee unless he can flat out refuse secret service protection, which I’m sure he already knows is a significant risk to his personal security so he probably won’t.
Honestly I strongly suspect he’s going to try to drag out every charge for as long as possible, use every legal and illegal tactic he can to avoid actually being sentenced to more than a fine, then if he ever sees actual jail time he’ll commit suicide. I can’t see him pulling a Skreli and doing a few months with his head low before getting out on good behavior
I think there’s logistical issues with paying your own bail in full. Like, the court has limited hours and may not accept wire transfers. It could be days before they can clear that kind of money and you’re in jail until that time. The bondsmen already have all that ready to go with the courts so they can do it instantly.
The bail bondsman who gave him that loan is the biggest sucker in the whole MAGA kingdom. That $180,000 will never be seen again.
Edit: Nevermind, I didn’t understand how bail works.
A bail bondsman has more legal options for going after someone than any other type of loan officer, including the use of bounty hunters.
Sounds like a movie, but I wouldn’t want to be the bounty hunter tasked with going up against the Secret Service! Though this does raise questions about the Secrets Service’s responsibility to protect against legally sanctioned law enforcement (of sorts).
That’s not how bail bonds works. It’s not a loan. You pay the bondsman 10%. Then the bondsman guarantees that the defendant will show up to his court dates. If the defendant fails to show up the bondsman has to pay the court the entire amount. Bondsman often use bounty hunters to pick up defendants who haven’t shown up.
I am not American, so it might be the phrasing that confuses me.
But is the 10% returned to the defendant? Or that’s a flat fee that the bondsman take?
If that is the latter, then I understand why people are questioning why Trump is using a bondsman since he supposedly have the cash to cover the full bond that he will get back once he shows up.
So either he plans to fuck off so he saved 90% of his bond, or he’s having cashflow issues.
If it’s the former, then it make total sense to use a bondsman regardless of your fortune.
It’s not a loan
It pretty much is
https://www.sevenslegal.com/criminal-attorney/bail-bail-bonds-work/418/
HOW BAIL BONDS WORK
Bail bonds are similar to personal loans. After putting down a small percentage for the total amount, a bail bondsman or agent, gives you the rest of the money needed for your bail. Like a loan officer, this bail bondsman or agent is similar to the lender of a personal loan.
As an example, if your bail is $15,000, you or a family member would be required to make a deposit of $2,000. The bail bondsman or agent would then give you the $15,000 bail needed for you to “post bail.” Most bail bond companies also will require you to provide them with some type of collateral in order to get the remaining money needed for your bail bond. Collateral is usually a deed to your house, item of jewelry, or car. This collateral is used in order to secure the bail bonds’ loan in case you don’t show up at your appointed court date, in which case you would not get your money back. After your trial is over, and you receive your money back from the court, the money is returned to bail bond company you received your bail from.
Due to the fact that this is a financial risk the bail bondsman and bail bond company take because of this loan, they will often take additional precautions to make sure you attend all of your court dates. The bail bondsman wants to make sure his or her company receives back all the bail money it loaned you. As a result of these precautions, bail bond companies will frequently do the following:
Prefer a relative or friend put up the necessary collateral for your bond. This is because you will then be less likely to miss a court date since your relative’s or friend’s house or property is on the line in for your bail bond. Call you before each court date in order to remind your about your upcoming trial. Require you to make periodic check-ins at their bail bond office to make sure you haven’t left town. Like most defendants, you will probably agree that these precautions are a small prices to pay in order to be able to stay out of jail while waiting for a trial date or during your trial.
If the defendant fails to show up the bondsman has to pay the court the entire amount
I’m curious, does the bondsman actually give the court cash, or just guarantee that they will if the defendant doesn’t show? And if that is the case, do they bond out more people than they actually have cash to cover, knowing that it is unlikely that they’ll ever have to cover all those positions?
Trump wouldn’t be the one paying it back. Unless you’re implying he’s going to not show up for trial.
Unless you’re implying he’s going to not show up for trial.
You really think he’s “above” skipping town to avoid jail time?
Is he poor? Maybe. The question is why is he poor? He just sold Mar-a-lago to a company owned by Don Jr., alledgedly for something over $400 million.
He might be poor because he’s hiding all his assets on offshore banks. If so, then the question becomes: why is he doing that?
Man, I really hope he runs. Just to see Republican faces when he abandons them and maybe a few finally realize they were conned.
The top dogs all know. They have tried multiple times to push him aside. Propping up desantis, having rules for the debates that are targeted at trump etc. It doesn’t work and they are happy to use him when it suits them. The question is will it blow up in their faces to personally damage them or just the party and they will take their I’ll gotten gains and slink away.
A few, maybe. But I worry that anyone who’s still on the Trump train at this point may be on it for life. They’ll rationalize that he was forced out of the country by a crooked liberal conspiracy.
I’m guessing he’s worried about his assets being seized once his involvement with criminal money laundering for Russian mobsters comes to light. And emoluments. And using his position as an elected official to enrich himself by having the secret service stay at his properties paying exorbitant amounts above market value. And so on.
He’s obviously not poor enough to not be able to come up with 20 grand. But if your backup plan is to flee the country, why put up any of your own money? He’s going to try to be in Moscow or some other country that won’t extradite him if it starts looking bad. He might not actually pull it off but he’s dumb enough to think he can.
My head canon for that timeline involves him being hunted down for betraying the united states, and his corpse dumped in the ocean like bin laden so that his grave site doesn’t become a place of worship for republicans.
I believe the terms of bonds in Georgia are that 10% must be posted by the defendant. This is the absolute least of his own money he could put up and not have to sit in jail until trial.
EDIT: I’m at least partially wrong here. With a bond you’re giving a percentage of your bail to a 3rd party who will in turn post the full bail amount for you. When you show up to trial, they get the bail back and pocket the percentage you paid. The only reasons you’d take bond over bail is if you can’t afford the full amount, or you think you can make more money than the percentage by investing that money in something.
Still seems like this is the cheapest way for him to stay out of jail in the short term. Lord knows a bondsman’s bounty hunter would have his work cut out bringing in a former president…
I imagine if TFG was dumb enough to try to jump bail (yeah, he very well might be that dumb), the judge would simply phone the Secret Service. They’re law enforcement so even if they won’t arrest him themselves, when the sheriff or federal marshals call, they’ll simply arrange a protection detail around Trump and the deputies and keep Trump very safe as he’s arrested and hauled into custody.
