Monday, March 18, 2024

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1/ Trump doesn’t have enough money to post the $464 million appeal bond he owes in his New York civil fraud case, according to a court filing by Trump’s attorneys. Trump needs to post the appeal bond in order to prevent New York Attorney General Letitia James from seizing his real estate assets. Trump’s legal team said they spent “countless hours” contacting about 30 surety companies through four separate brokers to try and raise the money, but none were willing to underwrite the bond. They ultimately concluded that raising the money for the appeal bond was “a practical impossibility.” Trump would need nearly $1 billion in cash reserves in order to convince the companies to help him out, which neither Trump nor the Trump Organization possesses. In the filing, Trump’s lawyers asked a panel of five Manhattan appeals court judges to allow him to hold off on posting the bond while he appeals the verdict. If the request is denied, AG James could start seizing Trump’s properties on March 25. (CNBC / New York Times / NBC News / CNN / Axios / Wall Street Journal / Washington Post / ABC News)

2/ The EPA banned asbestos in the United States, a carcinogen linked to more than 40,000 American deaths annually. The rule bans the use of chrysotile asbestos, the only form still used in the U.S., which is found in products like brake linings, gaskets, and in chlorine bleach and sodium hydroxide production. Exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers. The ban is a significant expansion of an earlier EPA regulation under the 2016 Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act and will be implemented in phases, with immediate effects on imports and gradual prohibitions on other uses over the next two to five years. The rule does provide an exception for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina until 2037 to ensure the safe disposal of nuclear material. (ABC News / NBC News / Wall Street Journal)

3/ Mike Pence declared that he will not endorse Trump in the 2024 general election. Pence cited “profound differences” between their views on various issues, including Trump’s stance on the national deficit, abortion, the TikTok ban reversal, and the Jan. 6 insurrection. Pence also criticized Trump for a political platform that he said is “at odds with the conservative agenda” they followed during their administration. Pence declined to say who he would personally vote for in the 2024 election, but said he would “never” vote for Biden. Pence said he plans to instead focus on promoting a “broad mainstream conservative agenda” for the remainder of the year. (

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