Background: In courtroom sketch, E. Jean Carroll, center, stands while holding hands with her attorneys Shawn Crowley, left, and Roberta Kaplan, right as the jury files out of the courtroom after the verdict, Jan. 26, 2024. (Elizabeth Williams via AP)/ Inset: Former President Donald Trump sits in the courtroom before the start of closing arguments in his civil business fraud trial at New York Supreme Court, Jan. 11, 2024, in New York. Seth Wenig, AP)
After a judge in New York rejected his attempt to stay the execution of the $83.3 million he owes writer E. Jean Carroll for defaming her without security to back it up, Donald Trump on Friday filed a motion to approve a $91.63 million bond while he appeals the ruling.
The 1-page motion said little else and was accompanied by a brief formal notice of appeal. Court records show the bond was backed by The Chubb Corporation. Notably, in 2018, Trump nominated Evan Greenberg, Chubb’s CEO, to serve as a member of his administration’s advisory committee for trade policy and negotiations.
Presiding U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan slammed Trump’s repeated attempts — he made at least four — to stay enforcement of the $83.3 million award on Thursday night, telling him tersely that his thinly-supported claims of difficulty shoring up the cash to pay Carroll were the “result of his own dilatory actions.”
Kaplan rejected the ex-president’s argument that he would experience “irreparable injury” without a stay.
Trump’s appeal of the case was expected; he filed a motion for a new trial as a part of bundle of filings his attorneys made at the last minute last week. The court had been waiting weeks for them. Nonetheless, the motion for a new trial outlines what will be expected at the appellate level.
The former president claims Kaplan “completely muzzled” him at trial and unfairly limited his testimony.
