A federal judge on Tuesday approved the $91.6 million bond posted by former President Donald Trump to delay payment of a defamation judgment awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll, according to court documents.
President Trump posted the supersedeas bond on March 8, seeking to pause enforcement of the judgment against him while awaiting the appeal’s resolution. Such a bond is required when appealing.
U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan granted the request to stay the execution of the judgment pending appeal in his order on Tuesday, saying the bond was “deemed sufficient.”
If the appeal fails, the bond ensures payment to Ms. Carroll of the damages awarded by a jury in January. The bond was filed a day after Judge Kaplan denied Alina Habba, one of the former president’s attorneys, permission to delay posting the bond.
The appeals bond was secured from the Virginia-based Federal Insurance Company, totaling $91,630,000 to cover the $83 million judgment in the case plus interest, per a court filing.
The conditions of the bond did not specify what assets President Trump used to secure the bond.
On March 8, President Trump filed a notice of appeal of the judgment with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. This required him to either pay the judgment or post a bond for the full amount of the judgment in order to proceed.
According to a court filing, if the appeal is successful, then the bond “shall be null, void, released, and discharged.”
Ms. Habba expressed confidence that the appeals court would overturn the judgment.
“Due to the numerous prejudicial errors made at the lower level, we are highly confident that the Second Circuit will overturn this egregious judgment,” Ms. Habba said in a statement.
The Epoch Times contacted President Trump’s attorneys for comment.
Judge Kaplan ordered President Trump to file a copy of the approved bond with the court clerk within five days of his order on Tuesday, stating that enforcement of the judgment is stayed “effective immediately” upon filing the bond. The stay will remain in effect until the appeal is resolved or until Judge Kaplan issues a further order.
After President Trump’s attorneys filed notice of the bond on the morning of March 8, meeting a deadline set by the judge following the rejection of a motion to delay payment, Ms. Carroll had until March 11 to file an objection.
On Substack, Ms. Carroll referred to the $91 million figure as a “stupendous amount” and joked about her attorney, Robbie (Roberta) Kaplan, stating that the bond spared her the trouble of yanking a “gold toilet out of the floor at Trump Tower” and tossing it through the window.
In January, a panel of nine jurors ruled that President Trump must pay more than $83 million to Ms. Carroll in a defamation case she filed in 2019. This marks the first of two lawsuits Ms. Carroll brought against President Trump, though it was the second to go to trial.
In 2019, Ms. Carroll accused President Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. He denied the accusations, prompting her to sue for defamation.
Last year, Ms. Carroll filed a sexual assault case against President Trump under a newly enacted New York state law that allowed such cases to be brought outside the statute of limitations. This lawsuit included additional statements made by President Trump about Ms. Carroll, alleging that her accusations were a publicity stunt to promote her book.
A jury found President Trump liable for “sexual battery” and awarded Ms. Carroll $5 million. President Trump is also appealing this case.
Judge Kaplan, overseeing both cases, issued a summary judgment before trial, finding President Trump liable for defamation due to the similarity of facts in both cases. This led to a relatively brief trial in January.
President Trump maintains that he never knew Ms. Carroll and denies her account of their interactions at the department store, stating that he never touched her.
The Epoch Times contacted Ms. Carroll’s attorney for comment.
