Former President Donald J. Trump outside Trump Tower in Manhattan, New York, before leaving for a two-day trip to Des Moines, Iowa, May 31, 2023.
Kyle Mazza | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Donald Trump provided $5.6 million in collateral, but the former president appealed a civil judgment that he sexually abused author E. Gene Carroll in the 1990s and defamed her decades later. It was revealed in court filings on Friday that
According to a joint provision filed by Trump’s attorneys and Carroll’s attorneys, if Trump loses on appeal, Carroll will be liable for the $5 million the jury awarded her in the May lawsuit, or an adjusted judgment. will be collected.
However, if Trump wins the appeal, it stipulates that the security deposit held in a court-controlled account will be returned “with interest on the funds.”
Former Elle magazine advice columnist E. Jan Carroll watches former President Donald Trump’s attorney Joe Tacopina deliver closing arguments in a civil trial. In this civil trial, Carroll accuses Trump of raping her in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and defamation, New York, May 8, 2023.
Jane Rosenbergreuter
If the Court of Appeals or the Supreme Court remands the case to the United States District Court in Manhattan for further proceedings, the funds will remain in place until the judgment against Carroll is “final and non-appealable,” according to the filing. It says.
Judge Louis Kaplan approved the arrangement late Friday afternoon.
After news of the deal broke, Trump’s outspoken attorney George Conway tweeted, “He didn’t get A-Bond.”
Conway said Trump could not secure an appeal bail from a third party because “no one wanted to chase him for collateral” which would be necessary to obtain bail in the first place if Trump lost the appeal. I suggested that it might be.
Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina told CNBC, “Absolutely not!” When asked if Conway’s allegations were accurate.
Tacopina said Trump “didn’t want to waste money securing the bonds,” in which case Trump would have to pay bond guarantors a premium for their services, typically 1% of the bond price. said there was.
“He had money,” Tacopina said of Trump.
Former President Donald Trump’s Attorney Joe Tacopina speaks to reporters outside Manhattan Criminal Court in New York City after Trump’s hearing on April 4, 2023.
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
In her lawsuit, Carroll alleges that Trump, the 2024 Republican presidential frontrunner, was raped at the Bergdorf Goodman store after a chance encounter in the fitting room in the mid-1990s.
She also alleged that he defamed her with statements he made last fall while denying her allegations.
After his trial in May, a jury found that Trump, 77, was responsible for sexually abusing Carroll, but not for raping her. The jury also admitted that he had slandered her.
President Trump asked the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn the ruling.
Separately, he asked Kaplan to order a new trial only on the issue of monetary damages.
In a court filing on June 8, President Trump’s attorney Joseph Tacopina said the $2 million jury award to Carroll, 79, for sexual abuse by President Trump was “in light of case law.” It is grossly excessive,” he argued. Tacopina said Carroll’s damages for the claim should be in the “low six figures” at most.
Defense counsel also argued that the $2.7 million damages awarded to Carroll should be significantly reduced to less than $368,000.
In a letter to Kaplan on Friday, Tacopina said his law firm now holds $5.6 million of Trump’s funds in a trust account, and if a judge agrees to the provision, , wrote that it intends to deposit those funds in a court-controlled account.
Trump could be ordered to pay Carroll even more money next year.
Kaplan plans to start trial on Jan. 15 in another lawsuit Carroll has filed against Trump. In this case, Ms. Carroll alleges that Mr. Trump defamed her with her remarks about herself after she first publicly disclosed her own rape victimization during her presidency.
In this case, Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in damages. Kaplan earlier this month allowed her existing lawsuit to be amended to include comments Trump made about her on CNN in May, the day after she lost her first trial.
President Trump was indicted earlier this month by a federal grand jury in Miami for storing hundreds of classified documents at his Florida mansion after leaving the White House in January 2021. He has pleaded not guilty in this case.
He also filed a New York state lawsuit against nearly 30 criminal prosecutions for falsifying business records related to hush money paid to two women who allege they had sexual relations with him before the 2016 presidential election. He also pleaded not guilty to the lawsuit.
Trump was accused of trying to reverse his 2020 election loss by federal prosecutors, and by Atlanta prosecutors for trying to steer Georgia officials in an attempt to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory in the state that year. They are under separate criminal investigation by the authorities.
