Donald Trump dealt blow in hush money case, lifeline in fraud case | ABC News

Donald Trump has been given something of a lifeline by an appeals court in New York overnight, which will now allow him to pay a reduced bond in a civil fraud case against him. The decision came on the very same day Mr Trump fronted a Manhattan court to hear a criminal case against him will actually go to trial next month. Our North America correspondent Barbara Miller joins us now. Barb, good morning. So let's start with the civil case. Mr Trump can now avoid his assets being seized, at least for the time being. It looks like it. He had been up for about 700 million dollars. That was what he was ordered to pay after being found liable in this civil fraud case of inflating the values of his properties in order to obtain favourable loans. Now, he said that he couldn't find a company to secure the bond for 700 million, and he was facing from today the possible seizure of some of his assets. That could start with cash, personal property like cars and planes, and then parts of his real estate empire. The appeals court has given him 10 further days to post the bond and said he only needs to post 175 million US. That's about 270 million Australian. And Donald Trump speaking after he heard of that decision, indicating that he would be able to post that sum. On the other decision, it will be my honour to post and we'll post whatever is necessary, whether it be cash or security or bonds. This is a decision we appreciate and respect the appellate division very much. And we will, I think, do very well in that whole thing. Former US president there. So, Barb, on that criminal case now that had originally been slated to start today. What happened there? That's right. That one was delayed because tens of thousands of more documents had turned up, had been turned over to the defence, and the defence was arguing that it needed much more time to look through those extra documents. The judge was sceptical of their arguments and said that only a few hundred of those documents were relevant to the case. So, what the judge, Judge Marchand, has done is confirmed a start date with a 30-day delay. That puts the start of jury selection at April the 15th. Now, this will be the very first of the four criminal cases that Donald Trump is facing to go to trial. And the way things are looking, it's possible that it could be the only one that manages to get scheduled before the November election. It won't surprise you, though, Michael, that Donald Trump has announced that he will appeal that decision and try and further delay that trial. And it's a shame. It's a shame what's happening to our country. This is election interference. And so far, based on the polls, it's not working at all. The people understand it. We have a man who just ruled he'd like the trial to start in 21 days or something. And I don't know how you can have a trial that's going on right in the middle of an election. Not fair. Not fair. It's not fair at all. He knows that, too. He's a Democrat judge. He wants to do that because they're all trying to damage Trump as much as possible. It's having the reverse effect, but maybe someday it won't. I don't know. They wouldn't be quibbling at all. They never started it. And you know why they didn't start it? Because they didn't know I'd be running. And they didn't know how well I'd do. And if I were not running or if I were doing poorly, like everyone else has done, because they're all gone, they're all knocked out except for crooked Joe Biden. If I were doing poorly, this wouldn't be happening. None of these trials would have been happening.