Judge to Trump: $83M judgment due by Monday
NEW YORK — Donald Trump’s Hail Mary pass seeking more time to secure $83.3 million owed to E. Jean Carroll failed Thursday, giving the former president less than four days to come up with the colossal judgment — weeks out from a deadline to find half a billion dollars more in his historic fraud case.
In a one-page decision, Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the former president’s request to halt collection of the damages a jury awarded Carroll in January as compensation for his defaming her while in office.
“Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions. He has had since January 26 to organize his finances with the knowledge that he might need to bond this judgment, yet he waited until 25 days after the jury verdict,” Judge Kaplan wrote.
Trump lawyer Alina Habba on Wednesday asked Kaplan to delay the deadline until three business days after he rules on Trump’s post-trial motions to give him time to finalize bond arrangements, saying requiring him to come up with the total “threatens to impose irreparable injury.” Habba did not immediately respond to requests for comment on whether and how Trump was prepared to pay on time.
Once secured, the money Trump owes Carroll will remain in an account under the court’s purview until he’s exhausted his appeals. The damages come on top of $5 million a different jury awarded the former Elle columnist last year in the other of her two lawsuits against Trump after finding he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in 1996 and defamed her on social media after his presidency.
The debt to Carroll pales in comparison to the more than $454 million Trump owes in a judgment secured by the New York attorney general, which he has to secure by March 25. The presumed Republican presidential nominee has similarly tried to delay or reduce the growing sum Judge Arthur Engoron ordered him pay in a Feb. 16 ruling finding him and his top Trump Organization executives liable for rampant fraud and barring them from doing business in New York for three years.
The mammoth judgment in the fraud case is due the same day Trump’s 2016 election interference trial starts in Manhattan. He’s pleaded not guilty to 34 felonies in the case alleging he covered up reimbursement to his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen for a hush money payoff to porn star Stormy Daniels to disguise a “catch and kill” scheme illegally orchestrated to secure his presidential victory.
The charges carry up to four years in prison, and the trial may be the only one Trump sees before the November presidential election, with his out-of-state cases stagnating amid his appeals. The U.S. Supreme Court is expected to hear arguments regarding Jack Smith’s election subversion case April 25 before deciding whether Trump’s actions as president were above the law.