Donald J. Trump on Friday posted a $91.6 million bond in a defamation case he just lately misplaced to the author E. Jean Carroll, staving off a possible authorized and monetary catastrophe simply days earlier than a deadline to safe the deal.
The bond, supplied by an outdoor insurance coverage firm, will forestall Ms. Carroll from amassing the judgment whereas Mr. Trump appeals.
A federal jury awarded Ms. Carroll $83.3 million in January, and Mr. Trump just lately requested that the judgment be paused. The choose presiding over the case, Lewis A. Kaplan, denied Mr. Trump’s request for a preliminary reprieve, placing strain on Mr. Trump to both provide you with the cash himself or safe assist from an outdoor firm.
With a Monday deadline looming, Mr. Trump secured the bond, which is greater than the $83.3 million judgment as a result of the previous president can also be answerable for curiosity.
The bond is a promise from the corporate providing it — Federal Insurance coverage Firm, an arm of the insurance coverage large Chubb — to cowl Mr. Trump’s judgment if he loses his attraction and fails to pay. In change, Mr. Trump should pay the corporate a payment and pledge collateral, together with as a lot money as attainable.
In a courtroom submitting Friday morning, Mr. Trump’s lawyer, Alina Habba, requested Decide Kaplan to approve the bond as “adequate and sufficient” to dam Ms. Carroll from amassing the award earlier than Mr. Trump’s attraction is determined.
In a press release, Ms. Habba mentioned she was “highly confident” that an appeals courtroom “will overturn this egregious judgment,” citing “numerous prejudicial errors” made at trial.
A Trump marketing campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, mentioned in a press release that the bond had been filed “in the full amount of the baseless judgment in the Democrat-funded Carroll Witch Hunt, which is being appealed and litigated.”
Ms. Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, declined to touch upon Friday.
The bond in Ms. Carroll’s case removes, not less than for now, simply one of many many looming threats from Mr. Trump’s authorized docket, which additionally consists of 4 felony indictments, the primary of which goes to trial in about two weeks.
In a separate civil case, Mr. Trump faces a judgment of more than $450 million levied by a New York State choose in a fraud lawsuit introduced by Legal professional Common Letitia James. The choose, Arthur F. Engoron, sided with Ms. James, concluding that Mr. Trump had fraudulently inflated his web value to reap favorable mortgage phrases and different monetary advantages.
Mr. Trump just lately requested a state appeals courtroom to just accept solely a $100 million bond in that case. His legal professionals mentioned it will be “impossible” to acquire a bond for the complete quantity, which is $454 million and counting with curiosity.
A single appeals courtroom choose turned down his request, however Mr. Trump can attempt once more earlier than a full panel of 5 appellate courtroom judges.
Until that panel cuts him a break, Mr. Trump might want to put up a bond for the complete quantity by March 25 — which occurs to be the opening day of his first felony trial. If he fails, Ms. James is anticipated to maneuver swiftly to gather, seizing the previous president’s financial institution accounts and probably even a few of his New York properties.
Though Mr. Trump estimates his web value within the billions, a lot of it stems from the worth of his properties. He has greater than $350 million in money and investments he can promote in a rush, a current New York Occasions evaluation discovered, properly in need of what he owes between the fraud case and the defamation verdict.
The award to Ms. Carroll got here in a January trial over how a lot she ought to obtain in damages for defamatory statements Mr. Trump made about her in 2019 after she accused him of a decades-old rape — and for his persevering with assaults on her since, on social media, at information conferences and throughout the trial itself.
Mr. Trump was discovered liable, in a separate trial final 12 months, for sexually abusing Ms. Carroll within the mid-Nineties and for making a defamatory social media put up about her in 2022. The jury in that case awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million, and Mr. Trump later posted about $5.6 million in money in a courtroom account pending his attraction of that verdict.
Earlier than securing the bond, Mr. Trump’s legal professionals had made an alternate proposal: that Decide Kaplan enable Mr. Trump to put up a bond “in a fraction of the amount” of the award. The protection requested for the smaller bond quantity whereas the choose finally dominated on the previous president’s request that the decision be thrown out.
Ms. Carroll’s legal professionals had urged the choose to disclaim Mr. Trump’s request for a keep.
They argued that the previous president had not supplied any details about his funds or the character and placement of his belongings; that he had not specified what portion of his belongings have been liquid or defined how Ms. Carroll would possibly go about amassing her judgment; and that he had not addressed the dangers of the massive judgment obtained by Ms. James’s workplace in addition to the numerous felony fees Mr. Trump faces “that might end his career as a businessman permanently.”
“He simply asks the court to ‘trust me,’ and offers, in a case with an $83.3 million judgment against him, the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin, signed by the least trustworthy of borrowers,” Ms. Carroll’s legal professionals wrote.
