Last night, Rachel Maddow talked about how this is a difficult and dangerous thing for us as a country because Trump's got to put up bonds for over $500 million worth of court judgments right within the next two weeks.
"He's put up already under $100 million. Still another 400+ million to go very soon. He does not appear to have the cash and assets and collateral to pay for those bonds, to put up what he needs to put up for those bonds without considerable strain, if he can even cobble anything together to bolster those bonds in total.
"So he desperately needs money, I mean, right now. That bond, that half billion bond, that's two weeks from today. And he needs that money so urgently, right now, while he is openly changing his publicly-held, long held supposedly heartfelt policy positions in which that appears to be straight-up responsiveness to -- cha-ching. Financial initiative. On the bond he paid already and the huge one he's got to put up for within the next two weeks, there is no public transparency into who might be cosigning with him or otherwise underwriting these bonds."
So Maddow wonders if someone helped him put up the cash and collateral -- and what are they getting in exchange?
"I mean, we know the name of the bonding company that put up the $91 million bond for the E. Jean Carroll case. But we don't know if it was Trump alone or Trump and some helpers who put up the cash and collateral necessary to obtain that bond from that company. We have asked Mr. Trump this evening if he will tell us if there were cosigners or anyone otherwise assisting him in obtaining that bond. We have not yet heard back from him.
"We will let you know if we do. But in national security terms, this is a profoundly dangerous thing, regardless of what it means for him personally and politically, it's a dangerous thing for us as a country. I mean, think about if you needed to get a security clearance for work, right. You wanted to get a security clearance. but when you applied for that clearance, the FBI did their background check on you and they became aware that you were in this much need of this much money this urgently.
"If you were applying for a security clearance right now and the FBI found that two weeks from today you need to put up cash and collateral to secure almost a half billion of a bond to pay your court judgment, do you think you would get a security clearance? There is no chance you would ever be approved for even the lowest level security clearance, because the risk is just too obvious, that you would be tempted to sell American secrets for this money that you so desperately need."
