Trump loses attempt to delay $84m verdict in E Jean Carroll case
The federal judge overseeing Donald Trump’s defamation verdict in a case from E Jean Carroll has rejected the former president’s attempts to dodge the $83m judgment against him.
Earlier this week, Mr Trump’s attorneys Alina Habba and John Sauer asked US District Judge Lewis Kaplan to extend a pause of the judgment, which was set to expire on Monday, putting the former president in a financial hole that “threatens to impose irreparable injury in the form of substantial costs” he might not be able to recover, his attorneys argued.
Mr Trump would be required to pay a cash bond of roughly 110 per cent of the judgment to appeal the ruling.
On Thursday, the judge said Mr Trump’s “current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions.”
“He has had since January 26 to organize his finances with the knowledge that he might need to bond this judgment, yet he waited until 25 days after the jury verdict – and only shortly before the expiration of [the] automatic 30-day stay of judgment – to file his prior motion for an unsecured or partially secured stay pending resolution of post-trial motions,” the judge wrote.
The expense of ongoing litigation without a pause of the judgment “does not constitute ‘irreparable injury’ in the relevant sense of that term,” according to the judge.
Mr Trump has also not made “any showing” of what kinds of financial damage he’d face if he posts bond, how he plans to post bond, “or any other circumstances relevant to the situation,” Judge Kaplan said.
In January, a nine-member jury determined that Mr Trump must pay Ms Carroll more than $83m in damages for his defamatory statements about the former Elle magazine writer.
He was previously found liable for sexual abuse and then lying about her sexual assault allegations, which fuelled abusive messages and death threats against her, according to her attorneys. Mr Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations.
The judgment adds to the former president’s tens of millions of dollars in financial penalties, including a judgment of more than $454m, plus daily interest, after a judge found him liable for a decade-long fraud scheme to deceive banks and investors to gain favourable financing terms for his brand-building properties.
A New York appellate judge denied Mr Trump’s request to halt enforcement of the monetary judgment against him in that case, but the former president will still be allowed to direct his real estate empire and apply for loans to be able to afford the bond to appeal the ruling against him.
Mr Trump has not yet been forced to pay that multi-million dollar judgment or put up the collateral, though that soon could change if an appeals court refuses to stay the judgment.
A response brief from New York Attorney General Letitia James’s office in that case is due on 11 March.
