Trump Posts $91.6 Million Bond For E. Jean Carroll Defamation Judgment After Judge Rejects Delay

On Friday morning, former President Donald Trump posted a $91.6 million bond for the $83.3 million civil defamation judgment in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll. The higher amount was required due to interest payments owed by Trump.

The bond was issued by Federal Insurance Company, a division of Chubb, which required extensive collateral, likely including mostly cast assets.

On Thursday, Judge Lewis Kaplan denied Trump’s request for a delay, ruling that Trump must either pay Carroll by Monday or provide a bond or assets as collateral while he appeals the jury’s verdict from January, which found him guilty of defaming Carroll after she accused him of rape in 2019.

This civil judgment is just one of three financial obligations Trump faces, with a total of $540 million owed to the New York attorney general and Carroll.

Trump’s legal team had sought a pause in the Carroll case judgment until after the judge ruled on post-trial motions. His attorney, Alina Habba, filed a request for a delay, saying they needed time until the court ruled on the stay motion.

However, Judge Kaplan, in his denial order, pointed out that Trump’s current predicament was a result of his own delays. Kaplan highlighted that Trump had ample time since January 26 to organize his finances, as he knew that he might need to post a bond for the judgment but instead chose to wait until 25 days after the jury verdict to request a delay.

Furthermore, the judge dismissed the argument put forth by Trump’s lawyers that he would suffer “irreparable injury” if forced to post a bond for the full judgment due to non-recoverable fees. Kaplan clarified that the ongoing expenses of litigation did not meet the threshold for “irreparable injury” in the relevant context.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung criticized the decision as part of a “totally lawless witch hunt.”

Carroll’s lawyers, represented by Zak Sawyer, did not comment on the ruling.

In a separate Manhattan federal civil trial last year, Trump was found to have sexually abused Carroll in the mid-1990s and defamed her in comments made in 2022, well after he left the White House. In that case, he posted $5.6 million in cash as collateral while appealing the jury verdict that ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million.

Both the previous trial and the recent trial revolved around Carroll’s claim that Trump had raped her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in a chance encounter in the 1990s. Trump vehemently denied the allegations and suggested that Carroll fabricated them to boost sales of a book she was writing and to harm him politically.

In a separate legal matter, Trump was recently ordered by a state court judge to pay a $454 million judgment in a civil business fraud lawsuit initiated by New York Attorney General Letitia James (D). However, he has yet to fulfill this financial obligation or provide collateral to secure the judgment in the fraud case. The situation may change if an appeals court denies a stay of the judgment.