Former president Donald J. Trump outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, Latest York, prior to his departure to a two-day trip to Des Moines, Iowa, May 31, 2023.
Kyle Mazza | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Donald Trump put up $5.6 million as security while the previous president appeals a civil verdict that he sexually abused author E. Jean Carroll within the Nineties and defamed her a long time later, a court filing Friday revealed.
If Trump loses the appeal, Carroll will collect the $5 million a jury awarded her within the case in May, or any adjusted judgment, in response to a joint stipulation submitted by his lawyers and attorneys for Carroll.
But when Trump wins his appeal, he’ll get the safety deposit back, “with any interest earned on such funds” while they were held in an account under the court’s control, that stipulation says.
Former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jean Carroll watches as Joe Tacopina, lawyer of former U.S. President Donald Trump, makes closing arguments during a civil trial where Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room within the mid-Nineties, and of defamation, Latest York, May 8, 2023.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
If the appeals court or Supreme Court sends the case back to U.S. District Court in Manhattan for further proceedings, the funds will remain where they’re until any award to Carroll “becomes final and un-appealable,” in response to the filing.
Judge Lewis Kaplan approved the arrangement later Friday afternoon.
After news of the deal broke, the attorney George Conway, a harsh critic of Trump, tweeted “He. Couldn’t. Get. A. Bond.”
Conway suggested that Trump was unable to secure an appeal bond from a 3rd party because “nobody desires to chase him for the collateral” required to acquire the bond in the primary place if Trump lost his appeal.
Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina told CNBC, “In no way!” when asked if Conway’s claim was accurate.
Tacopina said Trump “didn’t wish to waste the cash on securing a bond,” which might have required Trump to pay the bond guarantor a premium for the service, which usually is 1% of the worth of the bond.
“He had the money,” Tacopina said of Trump.
Lawyer of former US president Donald Trump, Joe Tacopina speaks to the press outside the Manhattan Criminal Court in Latest York on April 4, 2023 after Trump’s hearing.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
Carroll, in her lawsuit, claimed that Trump, the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman store within the mid-Nineties after a probability encounter there.
She also claimed he had defamed her last fall in statements he made while denying her allegations.
After a trial in May, a jury found that Trump, 77, was chargeable for sexually abusing Carroll — but not for raping her. Jurors also found he had defamed her.
Trump has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit to overturn the decision.
Individually, he has asked Kaplan to order a retrial solely on the questions of monetary damages.
In a June 8 court filing, Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina argued that the $2 million jurors awarded 79-year-old Carroll for Trump’s sexual abuse of her was “grossly excessive” under case law. Tacopina said Carroll’s damages for that claim must be “within the low six-figure range” at best.
The defense attorney also argued that the $2.7 million in compensatory damages Carroll was awarded must be sharply reduced to not more than $368,000.
In a letter Friday to Kaplan, Tacopina wrote that his law firm is currently holding $5.6 million of Trump’s money in a trust account and can deposit those funds right into a court-controlled account if the judge agrees with the stipulation.
Trump faces the potential for being ordered to pay Carroll even more cash next 12 months.
Kaplan has scheduled a trial to start on January 15 for one more lawsuit Carroll filed against Trump. In that case, Carroll is alleging Trump defamed her with comments he made about her while president after she first went public together with her rape claims.
Carroll is looking for damages of not less than $10 million in that case. Kaplan, this month, allowed her to amend her existing lawsuit to incorporate comments Trump made about her in May on CNN, a day after he lost the primary trial.
Trump was criminally indicted earlier this month by a federal grand jury in Miami on charges related to his retention of tons of of classified documents at his Florida residence after he left the White House in January 2021. He has pleaded not guilty in that case.
He also has pleaded not guilty in a Latest York state case to almost three dozen criminal counts of falsifying business records in reference to hush money payments made before the 2016 presidential election to 2 women who said they’d sex with him.
Trump is individually under criminal investigation by federal prosecutors for efforts to overturn his loss within the 2020 election, and by an Atlanta prosecutor for his try to get Georgia officials to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory in that state that 12 months.
