Judge Gives E. Jean Carroll Opportunity to Object to Trump’s $91 Million Bond During Appeal

(Left) Former President Donald Trump at Trump Tower on Jan. 26, 2024. (Right) Writer E. Jean Carroll leaves Manhattan Federal Court on Jan. 25, 2024. Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan has given writer E. Jean Carroll until Monday morning to file any objection she has to former President Donald Trump posting a $91 million bond to delay paying the $83 million a jury ordered at the conclusion of the defamation trial.

If there is any objection, including but not limited to “the form, amount or surety of the proposed bond or the proposed order, or her consent to the relief sought by defendant’s motion,” the judge will hold a hearing on March 11 at 3 p.m.

Attorneys for President Trump filed notice of the bond Friday morning, meeting a deadline the judge set after rejecting a motion to delay payment. The figure would cover the penalty as well as interest and would generally require some collateral on President Trump’s part, though the details of the deal were not submitted in court filings.

Virginia-based Federal Insurance Company is guaranteeing more than $91 million that can be paid to Ms. Carroll should President Trump’s appeal fail or is withdrawn.

Ms. Carroll’s attorneys did not immediately return a request for comment.

On Substack, Ms. Carroll called the $91 million figure a “stupendous amount.”

“Though the illustrious Robbie Kaplan (below) is strong enough to yank a golden toilet out of the floor at Trump Tower and toss it through the window, this bond saves Robbie the trouble of showing up with US Marshals on Monday to do so,” Ms. Carroll wrote, referring to her attorney.

$83 Million in Damages

On Jan. 29, a panel of nine jurors said President Trump must pay more than $83 million to Ms. Carroll in a defamation case she brought in 2019. The figure breaks down to $18.3 million in compensatory damages, which included an $11 million campaign to repair her reputation, $7.3 million for emotional harm, and $65 million in punitive damages.

This was the first of two lawsuits Ms. Carroll brought against President Trump, but the second one to go to trial.

In 2019, Ms. Carroll alleged President Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s. He denied the accusations in public statements, leading her to sue for defamation.

Last year, Ms. Carroll brought a sexual assault case against President Trump when New York state passed a law allowing such cases to be brought outside the statute of limitations. The lawsuit included additional statements President Trump made about Ms. Carroll, claiming her accusations were part of a publicity stunt to sell 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, presiding over both cases, issued a summary judgment before trial finding President Trump liable for defamation because the facts were the same in both cases. This led to a relatively brief trial in January.

“The truth or falsity of Mr. Trump’s 2019 statements therefore depends—like the truth or falsity of his 2022 statement—on whether Ms. Carroll lied about Mr. Trump sexually assaulting her. The jury’s finding that she did not therefore is binding in this case and precludes Mr. Trump from contesting the falsity of his 2019 statements,” the judge wrote. “Mr. Trump’s contrary arguments are all unpersuasive.”

Ms. Carroll had argued that “no reasonable person could believe that Trump acted with actual malice in October 2022 but lacked it in June 2019” in her request for the pre-trial ruling.

Attorneys for President Trump have objected multiple times to the judge’s blocking of additional witness testimony on the basis that those facts had already been tried.

President Trump maintains that he did not know Ms. Carroll, contradicting her story of their joking around as they visited the department store, and says that he never touched her.

On the last day of the well-attended trial, President Trump abruptly left the courtroom during the plaintiff’s closing arguments. He later returned, and then left again before the jury delivered the verdict.