Former President Donald Trump has obtained a bond worth $83.3 million (C$112.26 million) to support the jury award given to writer E. Jean Carroll in a defamation trial stemming from her rape claims against Trump. His lawyer informed the federal judge overseeing the trial that an appeal was in progress.
Lawyer Alina Habba filed documents with the New York judge to confirm that Trump had secured a $91.6 million (C$123.4 million) bond from the Federal Insurance Co. She also filed a notice of appeal to indicate that Trump is appealing the verdict to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The filings were made a day after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan declined to postpone the deadline for posting a bond to ensure that Carroll, who is 80 years old, can receive the $83.3 million if it remains intact after appeals.
The bond posting was essential to delay payment of the award until the 2nd Circuit issues a ruling.
Trump is under financial pressure to set aside money for both the judgment in the Carroll case and a larger one in a lawsuit where he was found to have lied about his wealth in financial statements given to banks.
A New York judge recently refused to stop collection of a $454 million (C$611.6 million) civil fraud penalty while Trump appeals. He now has until March 25 to either pay up or purchase a bond covering the full amount. Meanwhile, interest on the judgment continues to accumulate, adding about $112,000 (C$150,890) each day.
Trump’s lawyers have requested for that judgment to be stayed on appeal, cautioning that he might need to sell some properties to cover the penalty.
On Thursday, Kaplan stated that any financial harm to the Republican front-runner for the presidency results from his delayed response to the late-January verdict in the defamation case linked to statements Trump made about Carroll while he was president in 2019 following her claims in a memoir that he raped her in spring 1996 in a midtown Manhattan luxury department store dressing room.
Trump strongly denied the claims, asserting that he didn’t know her and that the encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman store across the street from Trump Tower never occurred.
In May last year, a jury awarded Carroll $5 million (over C$6.7 million) after finding that Trump sexually abused her in the 1996 encounter, though it dismissed Carroll’s rape claims according to New York state law's definition of rape. Part of the award also stemmed from the jury’s determination that Trump defamed Carroll with statements he made in October 2022.
The January trial was specifically about statements Trump made in 2019 when he was president. Kaplan instructed the jury to abide by the findings of the jury from the previous May and only determine how much, if anything, Trump owed Carroll for his 2019 statements.
Trump did not attend the May trial but briefly testified and regularly sat with defense lawyers at the January trial. However, his behavior, including disparaging comments loud enough for jurors to hear, led Kaplan to threaten to send him away from the courtroom.
