Questions raised by New York Attorney General Letitia James about the man who stepped in to finance Donald Trump's $175 million appeals bond took center stage on MSNBC's "The Weekend" on Sunday morning with even more questions being raised.
Sitting down with co-hosts Alicia Menendez, Michael Steele and Symone Sanders-Townsend. MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin noted that Don Hankey, chair of the LA-based Hankey Group and owner of the Knight Specialty Insurance Company, has given conflicting answers about collateral his company accepted when putting up the bond for Trump's financial fraud conviction appeal.
Speaking with the hosts, she explained, "Don Hankey has given a number of interviews, he's been surprisingly forthcoming with a number of outlets including our own, but his precise statements have differed a little. But he told one outlet it was all in cash, he told another it was cash and a little bit of investment-grade bonds but he couldn't quite remember."
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"If somebody pledged collateral to me and I wasn't usually in the surety bond business, I would sure as heck remember what the collateral looked like if I was going to loan them or essentially put up for them $175 million. James has reasonable questions to ask," she elaborated.
Delving deeper into what would happen if Trump lost his appeal and had to come up with the close to half billion he was penalized, Rubin pointed out the dilemma Hankey and Trump would both face.
"Trump has to cover the difference and how he does that remains a mystery," the legal analyst told the panel. "In part because it's not securitized for the rest as Chuck [Rosenberg] just pointed out."
"If and when James wins on appeal to the full satisfaction of that $454 million — and by the way, that will grow by the day with post-judgment interest, if upheld on appeal it will be substantially larger than that by the time we reach that judgment months in the future— she will have to figure out where Donald Trump's assets are, which of them she can most quickly seize or enforce upon," she explained. "Many of them are already pledged to other lenders. For example, we know that Axos Bank in which Don Hankey is the largest individual shareholder, has $225 million of outstanding loans to Donald Trump on just two properties: the commercial portion of Trump Tower and the Doral Golf Course."
"Mmm-hmm. There it is," co-host Steele interjected as Sanders-Townsend exclaimed, "That bank has problems."
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