By LARRY NEUMEISTER (Associated Press)
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has secured a bond to support an $83.3 million jury award granted to writer E. Jean Carroll during a January defamation trial over rape claims she made against Trump. His attorney mentioned that an appeal is in progress. Attorney Alina Habba filed paperwork with the New York judge to show that Trump had obtained a $91.6 million bond from the Federal Insurance Co. She also submitted a notice of appeal, indicating that Trump is appealing the verdict to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The filings occurred after Judge Lewis A. Kaplan turned down a request to postpone a Monday deadline for posting a bond to ensure that the 80-year-old Carroll can receive the $83.3 million if it remains intact after appeals.
The posting of the bond was necessary to delay payment of the award until the 2nd Circuit can make a decision.
Trump is under financial pressure to set aside money to cover both the judgment in the Carroll case and a larger one in a lawsuit where he was found liable for lying about his wealth in financial statements given to banks.
A New York judge recently refused to delay collection of a $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. Meanwhile, interest on the judgment continues to accumulate, adding roughly $112,000 each day.
Trump's lawyers have requested a stay on appeal for the judgment, warning that he might need to sell some properties to cover the penalty. On Thursday, Kaplan wrote that any financial harm to Trump stems from his delayed 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 that he raped her in spring 1996 in a midtown Manhattan luxury department store dressing room. Trump strongly denied the claims, stating that he didn't know her and that the encounter at a Bergdorf Goodman store across the street from Trump Tower never took place.
A jury last May awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding that Trump sexually abused Carroll in the 1996 encounter, though it rejected her rape claims, as defined by New York state law. A portion of the award also stemmed from the jury's finding that Trump defamed Carroll with statements he made in October 2022.
The January trial focused solely on statements Trump made in 2019 while he was president. Kaplan instructed the jury to acknowledge the findings of the jury last May and was only deciding how much, if anything, Trump owed Carroll for his 2019 statements.
Trump did not attend the May trial, but he testified briefly and regularly sat with defense lawyers at the January trial, though his behavior, including disparaging comments that a lawyer for Carroll said were loud enough for jurors to hear, prompted Kaplan to threaten to banish him from the courtroom.
A attorney representing Trump claims that the ex-president has obtained a sufficient bond to back up an $83.3 million jury award given to writer E. Jean Carroll in a defamation trial that took place in January.
The January trial pertained solely to statements Trump made in 2019 while he was president. Kaplan instructed the jury that it must accept the findings of the jury last May and was only deciding how much, if anything, Trump owed Carroll for his 2019 statements.
Trump did not attend the May trial, but he testified briefly and regularly sat with defense lawyers at the January trial, though his behavior, including disparaging comments that a lawyer for Carroll said were loud enough for jurors to hear, prompted Kaplan to threaten to banish him from the courtroom.
