Judge approves Trump’s $91.6 million bond in E. Jean Carroll defamation case
Written by ABC Audio. All rights reserved. on March 13, 2024
(NEW YORK) — Judge Lewis Kaplan has approved Donald Trump’s $91,630,000 bond in the defamation case brought by columnist E. Jean Carroll, according to an order filed Tuesday afternoon.
“Enforcement of the Judgment, to the extent that the Judgment awards damages, is STAYED pending the final disposition of the appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit,” the order said.
The order stayed the execution of the judgment in the case while Trump appeals. If Trump’s appeal is unsuccessful, the bond ensures Carroll will be paid.
The former president had obtained an appeals bond from the Virginia-based Federal Insurance Company totaling $91,630,000 to cover the $83 million judgment in the case plus interest, according to a court filing on Friday. The conditions of the bond did not specify what assets Trump used to secure the bond.
Trump on Friday also filed a notice of appeal of the judgment to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Either paying the judgment or posting a bond for the judgment’s full amount was required for him to move ahead with the appeal.
Trump attorney Alina Habba told ABC News on Friday they’re confident their appeal will result in the judgment being overturned.
By posting a bond, Trump guaranteed that Carroll could collect the judgment if the former president exhausts his appeal, former federal prosecutor Josh Naftalis had told ABC News.
The appeal process could take more than a year, Naftalis said. Trump is still appealing the $5 million judgment a jury awarded to Carroll last May after determining the former president had sexually abused her.
The former president in January was ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegation that he sexually abused her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump, who said Carroll was “totally lying” and that she was “not my type,” has denied all wrongdoing.
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