Trump Posts Nearly $92 Million Bond In E. Jean Carroll Case Appeal
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Former President Donald Trump posted a nearly $92 million bond in New York federal court on Friday after much speculation on how he would obtain the necessary funds to continue appealing writer E. Jean Carroll’s case against him.
A jury told Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages in late January for defaming the magazine columnist, and U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan affirmed the amount in early February.
Carroll maintains that he raped her in an upscale Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s — a charge Trump has continually denied. In the process of issuing his denials, however, Trump called Carroll a “liar” and a “whack job,” among other descriptions that she and the court considered defamatory.
A jury sided with Carroll in a separate trial last year, finding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation and fining him $5 million. For the purpose of the second trial, Kaplan instructed jurors to accept the first jury’s conclusion that Trump sexually abused Carroll, who provided testimony and called witnesses in both trials.
In order to fight the more recent fine, Trump needed to either secure a bond for the amount, with a little extra for interest, or hand over the sum himself.
A group called the Federal Insurance Company issued him a bond in the amount of $91,630,000, according to court records. The company is a subsidiary of the insurance giant Chubb.
He will need to do the same in order to appeal a separate, larger fine against him — the more than $450 million imposed by a New York state court judge in mid-February in his civil fraud trial.
Amid so much legal trouble — Trump is also facing four other potential trials — questions have swirled over the health of Trump’s finances.
While Trump and his lawyers have bragged about his wealth and cash on hand, the former president’s true financial situation is not publicly known.
Trump asked, unsuccessfully, for more time to come up with the bond in the Carroll case.
His lawyers also asked the New York state court, unsuccessfully, to allow him to post a much smaller bond of $100 million in the fraud case, indicating the possibility he was having trouble covering the full amount.
A deal involving Truth Social, the platform Trump founded after being kicked off Twitter, could reportedly net him billions, but it is not clear whether he will be able to pull it together in time to cover such huge bills.
