Former U.S. President Donald Trump speaks throughout a press convention after attending the E. Jean Carroll second civil trial in New York Metropolis on Jan. 17, 2024.
Shannon Stapleton | Reuters
Former President Donald Trump on Friday appealed a civil defamation verdict in favor of author E. Jean Carroll, and posted a $91.6 million bond as he requested to keep away from having to pay damages he owes her as he pursues that attraction.
The attraction got here simply three days earlier than Trump confronted a deadline to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll for defaming her in 2019, when as president, he first denied her allegation that he had raped her in a Manhattan division retailer within the mid-Nineties.
The $91.6 million bond he posted is supposed to safe that injury award within the occasion his attraction of January’s jury verdict fails. Trump will get the cash from the bond again if he wins his attraction.
Carroll in a Substack put up later Friday known as the bond dimension “stupendous,” and recommended that she would have rapidly begun seizing Trump’s property if he had not secured the judgment by the deadline.
She added that her whereas lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, “is powerful sufficient to yank a golden rest room out of the ground at Trump Tower and toss it via the window, this bond saves Robbie the difficulty of displaying up with US Marshals on Monday to take action.”
Manhattan federal court docket Choose Lewis Kaplan, who will not be associated to Carroll’s lawyer, on Thursday denied a request by Trump to delay paying the author.
E. Jean Carroll and her attorneys Shawn Crowley and Roberta Kaplan react exterior the Manhattan Federal Court docket after the decision within the second civil trial after she accused former U.S. President Donald Trump of raping her a long time in the past, in New York Metropolis on Jan. 26, 2024.
Brendan Mcdermid | Reuters
The bond was issued by Federal Insurance coverage Firm, a subsidiary of Chubb Insurance coverage Firm, primarily based in Chesapeake, Virginia, based on a replica of the doc Trump signed. It represents 110% of the entire damages awarded to Carroll within the case, which displays the truth that the injury award is elevated by 9% yearly underneath New York regulation.
A court docket submitting concerning the bond didn’t reveal how a lot Trump both paid, or put up as collateral, to acquire it.
Chubb’s chairman and CEO, Evan Greenberg, in 2018 was appointed by Trump to the U.S. Commerce Consultant’s “Advisory Committee for Commerce Coverage and Negotiations.” Greenberg is not on that panel.
Chubb is referenced in one other main Trump authorized matter: the New York civil enterprise fraud case wherein Trump has been ordered to pay greater than $450 million for mendacity on monetary varieties about his internet value and property values.
The lawsuit by New York’s lawyer common that led to these damages stated that Trump misrepresented the dimensions of his Trump Tower triplex condo to a Chubb appraiser, who had gone to the unit in 2010 as a part of the underwriting course of for a house owner’s insurance coverage coverage.
Trump, who personally performed a walk-through tour of the condo, saved the main bedroom and a dressing room off limits as a result of “Mrs. Trump was sleeping,” the appraiser wrote, based on the go well with.
The appraiser additionally famous that there was little time to take measurements of the property, as a result of the appointment “was performed at a velocity directed by Mr. Trump,” who had allotted solely about quarter-hour for the evaluate, the go well with alleged.
Trump instructed the appraiser that he thought the triplex was about 25,000 to 30,000 sq. ft, based on go well with. However the precise dimension was 10,996 sq. ft.
Kaplan gave Carroll’s attorneys till Monday morning to submit any opposition to Trump’s proposed bond and court docket order. If there’s a disagreement about Trump’s requests, the events will argue earlier than Kaplan on Monday afternoon.
A spokesman for Carroll’s attorneys, requested if they’d object to the bond proposal, instructed CNBC, “must wait and see.”
Trump can be interesting one other Manhattan federal civil verdict, reached final 12 months, which ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million in damages for sexually abusing her within the mid-Nineties after which defaming her in feedback he made in 2022.
As a part of that different attraction, he posted $5.6 million money with the court docket to safe the damages he owes.
Trump can be interesting the $454 million verdict in his civil enterprise fraud case in New York state court docket.
An appeals court docket decide final week rejected Trump’s request to put up a bond of simply $100 million to safe these damages as he seeks to overturn the fraud verdict.
A panel of appellate judges is about to weigh in on Trump’s bond request within the fraud case.
Trump, who’s the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, individually faces 91 felony counts in 4 separate instances. He has pleaded not responsible in all of these instances.