NBC News legal analyst Andrew Weissmann was waking up “Morning Joe” viewers Wednesday with a vision of New York DA Letitia James seizing Donald Trump’s buildings as early as next week – when he crashed hard into MSNBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos.
Weismann had just laid out why he thinks Trump is lying about not having the cash for a $454 million bond to cover his civil fraud judgment – because even if Trump’s wealth is tied up in real estate, he can get fast second mortgages, the former federal prosecutor said.
“I think on Monday, absent the court lowering the amount or somehow staying the bond requirements, we’re going to be seeing Tish James seizing assets,” Weismann said.
Even “Morning Joe” host Mika Brzezinski thought that sounded too good to be true.
“I don’t believe it!” she exclaimed.
But the dream was really over when Cevallos stepped in with a big bucket of icy water to throw on those still hitting snooze.
“Here’s the thing on seizing assets,” Cevallos said. “The challenge here is actually what that looks like. And this is why ordinarily plaintiffs, attorneys and private firms [would] much rather go after a company or an individual who’s covered by an insurance policy that usually has liquid available to pay a judgment.”
For most plaintiff’s attorneys, he said, seizing assets is more trouble than it’s worth – especially when you’re going up against a well-lawyered defendant.
“It’s not fun. It’s not easy,” he said. “I imagine Donald Trump is protecting himself with layers and layers of protection that we haven’t even seen yet – that Tish James may not even know about. So it’s not going to be an easy process. It won’t be as simple as just freezing assets or walking in with a giant padlock in front of one of the buildings and getting that money within a week. It’s going to take some time.”
From there, it was as if an occult hand moved Brzezinski to pivot Weismann away from his reverie, and into the topic of what nefarious players could step in to pay Trump’s legal fees – Russian oligarchs were mentioned – and thereby own him. You can read all about that here.
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