WATCH: Jonathan Turley Pours Cold Water On Letitia James’ Plans: ‘Not Likely’

The New York appeals court delivered a ruling on Monday that, for the moment, prevents New York Attorney General Letitia James from seizing former President Donald Trump’s property. The move was in response to her efforts to enforce the judgment against him. Initially, Trump was challenged to post the $464 million bond, however, the court’s decision has now reduced the figure to $175 million.

The ruling not only offers Trump a financial reprieve but also imposes a delay on Attorney General James’s ability to proceed with the seizure of Trump’s assets. The delay is due to the time needed for the appeals court to address Trump’s appeal.

Jonathan Turley, a professor of constitutional law, commented on the situation before the good news for Trump, foreshadowing the ruling with a great amount of skepticism towards the potential success of James’ attempts to seize Trump’s properties. Turley attributed this to the complex nature of Trump’s property arrangements, which involve sophisticated partnerships and leveraged debt.

“You can’t use real estate to float a bond of this size,” Turley said on Fox News. “Now that may have been avoided, but I think that all of the drama going up to the appellate review has got to help Trump to some extent. I think that even people that could come up with this amount of cash in this short of time.”

WATCH:

The initial steps to seize Trump’s assets were taken by James last Thursday when she filed judgments in Westchester County, where Trump owns a private estate and golf course. Trump was given until the following Monday to either pay the judgment or convince the appellate court to postpone the payment while his appeal is pending.

“James hasn’t built anything but her career in her life,” Turley said. “This is complex finances and most of these properties are partnerships, they have leveraged debt, all of that has to be unraveled. So these aren’t just this one to one Trump versus James type of equation.”

Turley continued, “So in order to seize that property, she’s gonna be pulled into court, there’s gonna be challenges, it’s not gonna happen overnight. Where everyone is celebrating this idea that she’s gonna padlock Trump Tower, it’s not likely to happen and certainly not likely to remain very long.”

Many parts of Monday’s ruling were left intact, however, including orders that Donald Trump, Jr. and various family associates be prevented from holding corporate officer positions in New York for the next several years.

If the decision had not come down, Trump ran the very real risk of seeing his personal bank account frozen and entire buildings vacated and put under the control of the state of New York. The GOP favorite now has 10 days to come up with the new amount.

“Hopefully, they will redeem the New York legal system by saying, it’s not about Trump. It’s about us. And this is way over the top,” Turley concluded.

On Friday Trump received good news after a vote by the parent company of Truth Social to merge with a shell corporation in advance of going public, a deal that could see Trump’s net worth swell by as much as $4 billion.

Many speculated that Trump could sell some shares of the company for immediate profit, though that would require the Securities and Exchange Commission to waive a lockout period preventing owners of new public companies from disgorging themselves in the first six months after an initial public offering.

Trump has maintained that his civil real estate trial was a “sham” perpetrated by allies of President Joe Biden like AG James and an unfair judge, Arthur Engoron, who repeatedly reprimanded him during appearances in court.