Trump must post $175 million to shield assets amid real estate fraud appeal | The Excerpt
On Tuesday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: USA TODAY Justice Department Correspondent Aysha Bagchi reports on a pair of Donald Trump legal developments. Donald Trump's Truth Social is set to begin trading Tuesday. A major Baltimore bridge has collapsed. A Gaza cease-fire resolution clears the UN. USA TODAY Senior Investigative Reporter Emily Le Coz discusses pharmacy unionizing, as CVS Omnicare in Las Vegas seeks to join. Baseball star Shohei Ohtani says he was duped by his ex-interpreter amid gambling allegations.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson and today is Tuesday, March 26th, 2024. This is The Excerpt. Today, the latest surrounding Donald Trump's real estate fraud bond, plus Trump's social media platform begins trading on the Nasdaq. What's that mean for his finances? And we look at why some pharmacists want to unionize.
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A pair of major developments came yesterday surrounding former President Donald Trump. One centered on the bond in his real estate fraud trial loss, and another on his upcoming criminal hush money trial. I spoke with USA Today Justice Department correspondent Aysha Bagchi for the latest. Aysha, thanks for hopping on today.
Aysha Bagchi:
Hi Taylor. Good to be here.
Taylor Wilson:
So Aysha, we got a new development yesterday in the saga you and I have been discussing over Donald Trump's bond in his real estate fraud trial loss. What did an appeals court rule here?
Aysha Bagchi:
That's right. An appeals court gave Trump some help. He was being asked, along with his co-defendants to post a bond of $464 million. $454 million of that money was going to be the amount that he owes according to a trial judge in the case, and yesterday in appeals court said that he and his co-defendants only have to post $175 million in order to prevent New York Attorney General, Letitia James from collecting on the judgment while he appeals the ruling.
Taylor Wilson:
And have we heard from Trump after this decision and what is the expectation from him regarding this new bond?
Aysha Bagchi:
Trump sounds very happy. He sounds relieved. He sounds like he's much less concerned about being able to come up with the cash or the bond when it's $175 million than when it was $464 million. He hasn't sounded concerned about it. He treated it as a huge victory and sent out campaign fundraisers based on it. So he seems really pleased with the appeals court's ruling.
Taylor Wilson:
And just as a reminder, I know we touched on this a few days ago, but what does happen if Trump cannot or does not post bond here?
Aysha Bagchi:
Trump has 10 days now, that's what the appeals court said, to come up with this $175 million bond or he can simply place that amount of cash with the court, also. If he doesn't do that, he's facing the same situation he was about to face this week, which is that Letitia James can go after his assets to make sure that the residents of New York will be able to collect on the judgment if Donald Trump loses his appeal.
Taylor Wilson:
And finally, in other Trump News, Aysha. There was a big hearing yesterday surrounding his criminal hush money trial. Trump of course, faces dozens of felony counts for falsifying New York business records to cover up a hush money payment to adult film actress, Stormy Daniels. She said she had a sexual encounter with Trump, something he denies. Aysha, what did we learn from yesterday's hearing?
Aysha Bagchi:
We learned a couple of things. The really big news is we have a new trial date. Trump is scheduled to go on trial on April 15th. That is bad news for the former president. He was hoping for a much bigger delay. His lawyer said that he should get at least a 90-day delay after federal prosecutors dropped lots of documents, over 100,000 pages of documents, in the month leading up to the trial. It was originally set to begin March 25th, and this forced everyone to delay the trial. Trump wanted a much larger delay, but the big news we heard is that, no, this is going to go on trial April 15th. That's where things stand right now. And the other big news is Trump had actually asked for the judge to dismiss the entire case because of these late documents. His lawyers argued that the Manhattan District Attorney's Office should have gotten these documents and handed them over to the Trump team itself, and that that was a basis for throwing out the entire case.
And the judge clearly pushed back on that yesterday. He said that there was no evidence of misconduct by the prosecution when it comes to handing over these documents. In fact, he said that they've gone above and beyond what they needed to do. And so it's very clear he's not going to dismiss the case, based on that documents issue. And you could see just how much Trump's team wants a delay by what happened next in the courtroom. Immediately after the judge made that ruling, Trump's attorney, Todd Blanche, asked to file a motion for a delay on another issue. He said that there's been too much pretrial publicity and we should get a delay of the trial based on that. And the judge did say he's going to let the Trump team file that motion, but then the judge reiterated, as things stand now, the trial starting April 15th. So the judge does seem pretty set on getting the trial started in the not too distant future.
Taylor Wilson:
All right, Aysha Bagchi covers the Justice Department for USA Today. Thank you, Aysha.
Aysha Bagchi:
Thanks Taylor.
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Taylor Wilson:
Meanwhile, Donald Trump's social media platform is set to begin trading on the Nasdaq Stock Exchange today. Truth Social will appear under the ticker that bears his initials DJT. Truth Social's parent company, Trump Media and Technology Group will replace Digital World Acquisition after completing a merger with Digital World, a shell company that was already listed on the Nasdaq. Shares of Digital World Acquisition surged 35% in regular trading yesterday. Truth Social's parent company will have a market value of approximately $5.5 billion when it starts trading and Trump's stake will be worth about $3 billion. The valuation comes even after the company racked up tens of millions of dollars in losses since launching in 2021. The surge in digital world shares has increased the value of Trump's stake in Trump Media by billions of dollars. That's welcome news for Trump as he faces mounting judgments against him valued at hundreds of millions of dollars. Trump's gains are all on paper for the time being. He would need Trump Media's seven person board to lift a restriction that prevents him from selling shares or using them as collateral for a bond for the next six months. That board though, is stacked with allies including his son, Donald Trump Jr. You can read more with the link in today's show notes.
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The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed overnight in Baltimore after it was struck by a large cargo ship. The incident prompted a massive emergency response for at least seven people in the water. James Wallace, Chief of the Baltimore City Fire Department said at a news conference that at around 1:30 A.M. Local time, a vessel struck the bridge causing the collapse. Several vehicles were on the bridge at the time of the impact and plunged into the Patapsco River below. At least two people were rescued from the water. The bridge held the I-695 Highway and major East Coast shipping traffic passed underneath. You can follow along with this developing story on usatoday.com.
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The United Nations Security Council approved a resolution yesterday demanding an immediate ceasefire in Israel's war in Gaza during the Islamic Holy Month of Ramadan and the unconditional release of all hostages from Gaza. The US abstained from the vote, but it still moved forward, marking the first ceasefire resolution to pass the council since the Israel Hamas war began. The 14 other member nations voted to approve the resolution. Previous efforts to pass similar ceasefire resolutions had failed four times, and three were vetoed by the Biden administration. White House National Security spokesman, John Kirby, said, "Israel remains a strong ally," but the US abstention was met with strong resistance by the Israeli government and Israeli prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, announced that the country will no longer send a delegation that had planned to meet with Biden administration officials in Washington this week.
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A pharmacy in Las Vegas may be the first to join a new national pharmacy union. I spoke with USA Today's Senior Investigative Reporter, Emily Le Coz to learn more. Emily, thanks for hopping on The Excerpt today.
Emily Le Coz:
Thanks so much for having me.
Taylor Wilson:
Let's just start with this, Emily, what is the Pharmacy Guild and why was it formed?
Emily Le Coz:
The Pharmacy Guild is a national union of pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and other pharmacy workers. It was formed late last year after the walkouts that occurred in late September. CVS workers walked out in the Kansas City area shortly thereafter. There was another big walkout organized that included CVS and Walgreens workers, sporadic throughout the country, and from that, this initiative was born to form a nationwide guild representing pharmacists regardless of the chain, regardless of the setting, throughout the country. And so that's what the Guild is. It is under the umbrella of IAM Healthcare, which represents some 12,000 healthcare workers across the United States and Canada. It's a pretty big organization.
Taylor Wilson:
Workers at a Vegas CVS have filed a federal petition seeking the right to join this guild, Emily. What happened here in why are workers making this move?
Emily Le Coz:
It's a CVS Omnicare in Las Vegas. And unlike other CVSs, this one primarily serves nursing homes and it is not a public facing pharmacy. Yet, it does employ pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, and they are just the first of what organizers say will be many other locations throughout the country filing similar petitions. That petition was filed with the National Labor Relations Board, which is the federal agency overseeing union labor activity and the like. And so the petition basically puts the company in notice and says, "Hey, there's a group of workers here who would like the right to vote on whether to formally join this union and have them represent us in labor negotiations with the board," and so that petition is the first step toward that process.
Taylor Wilson:
What do we hear from pharmacy chains about unionization?
Emily Le Coz:
Well, I reached out to CVS and they, although have not had a chance to review the petition that was filed, instead of course, they support workers' rights to unionize or not unionize and indicated that they will follow the law as it relates to those efforts. But workers do say that they are burnt out, they are stressed. There has been increasingly less and less staff at these pharmacies and more and more demands placed upon them. They are measured and rewarded for speed and hitting a bunch of metrics like a number of vaccinations that they're given. They say while they're doing all this, they're not able to really best serve the patients and there is a heightened risk of medication error, which can be obviously dangerous or deadly. So they really feel like they need unionization to advocate for their rights.
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah, and Emily, you touched on this a bit, but might what we're hearing out of Vegas, really give a boost to this national movement around pharmacists unionizing, and just in general, what's next going forward?
Emily Le Coz:
This unionist Guild has been in the process of talking to pharmacists across the country. In fact, when they launched their website late last year, I believe it was November, the very first day it launched, it crashed because so many people were visiting. 30,000 people they said just that first day alone. They have heard from pharmacists and pharmacy technicians across the country who are interested in unionizing and they're going to do it on a location by location basis. So pharmacy by pharmacy, if you will. They say that there are at least a half dozen in the wings waiting to file similar paperwork with many, many more behind them. So they feel like this is an important first step and feel as though it's just going to be a domino effect from here.
Taylor Wilson:
Emily Le Coz is a senior investigative reporter with USA Today. Thanks as always, Emily.
Emily Le Coz:
Thank you so much.
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Taylor Wilson:
Major League Baseball star, Shohei Ohtani, spoke out yesterday amid gambling allegations. He said he had no knowledge or involvement in his interpreter's gambling addiction, racking up at least $4.5 million in sports wagering with an alleged illegal bookmaker. Ohtani said he had no idea that Ippei Mizuhara had a gambling addiction or withdrew money out of his account until the interpreter informed the Dodgers organization and players last week in a team meeting. Mizuhara has been by Ohtani's side, translating between Japanese and English since the star's Major League debut in 2018. He was fired by the Dodgers last week. Ohtani considered Mizuhara not only his interpreter, but his best friend who also acted as a manager. Ohtani signed a record 10 years, $700 million contract with the Dodgers in December. He did not take any questions yesterday saying that he will fully cooperate with federal and MLB investigators and doesn't plan to address the issue again until the investigation is complete.
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Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. You can get the podcast wherever you get your pods, and if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson. Back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from USA Today.