Trump attorneys post bond of US$83M
Covers award to writer in defamation case
NEW YORK • Former President Donald Trump has secured a bond sufficient to support an US$83.3 million jury award granted to writer E. Jean Carroll during a January defamation trial stemming from rape claims she made against Trump, his lawyer said Friday as she notified the federal judge who oversaw the trial that an appeal was underway.
Attorney Alina Habba filed papers with the New York judge to show that Trump had secured a US$91.6 million bond from the Federal Insurance Co. She simultaneously filed a notice of appeal to show Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner, is appealing the verdict to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The filings came a day after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan refused to delay a Monday deadline for posting a bond to ensure that the 80-yearold Carroll can collect the US$83.3 million if it remains intact following appeals.
The posting of the bond was a necessary step to delay payment of the award until the 2nd Circuit can rule.
Trump is facing financial pressure to set aside money to cover both the judgment in the Carroll case and an even bigger one in a lawsuit in which he was found liable for lying about his wealth in financial statements.
A New York judge recently refused to halt collection of a US$454 million civil fraud penalty while Trump appeals. He now has until March 25 to either pay up or buy a bond covering the full amount. In the meantime, interest on the judgment continues to mount, adding roughly US$112,000 each day.
Trump’s lawyers have asked for that judgment to be stayed on appeal, warning he might need to sell some properties to cover the penalty.
On Thursday, Kaplan wrote any financial harm to Trump results from his slow response to the late-january verdict in the defamation case over statements he made about Carroll while he was president in 2019 after she claimed in a memoir he raped her in spring 1996 in a Manhattan department store dressing room.
Trump vehemently denied the claims, saying that he didn’t know her and that the encounter never took place.
A jury last May awarded Carroll US$5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in 1996, though it rejected Carroll’s rape claims. A portion of the award stemmed from the jury’s finding Trump defamed Carroll in 2022.