Former President Donald Trump posted more than $91 million in bail on Friday to appeal his decision. $83 million judgment against him in lawsuit brought by E. Jean CarrollCourt filings say she defamed the writer after accusing him of sexual abuse.
Trump's lawyers notified a Manhattan federal court that he had posted $91.63 million bail, along with notifying him that he had appealed the sentence to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals. The bail payment amounted to 110% of the sentence against him and represented the amount he was required to provide to halt the execution of the sentence while he appealed it.
The Jan. 26 ruling marks the second time in less than a year that a jury has found in favor of Carroll, who accused President Trump of attacking her at a New York department store in the 1990s. In May 2023, another federal jury awarded Carroll an additional $5 million in damages and found Trump liable on sexual abuse and separate defamation charges.
Jurors in both cases reached unanimous verdicts within hours.
The verdict in Carroll's second trial came just weeks before a New York judge handed down the verdict. President Trump ordered to pay more than $450 million for fraud. A series of decisions left the Republican presidential candidate in deep financial turmoil.
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's attorney, declined to comment on Trump's appeal.
The move comes as U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is overseeing the case (no relation to Carroll's lawyers), declined to issue a stay order suspending the sentence without requiring Trump to post bond. It was held the next day. A Trump campaign spokesperson criticized the decision in a statement to CBS News on Friday, calling it “a continuation of a completely lawless witch hunt.”
Press Secretary Stephen Chan said, “President Trump has filed timely motions to halt the ridiculous judgments, and many courts, including the Second Circuit, have ruled that while such motions are considered, , we recognize the importance of the administrative suspension.” “We look forward to continuing our litigation and completing the vindication of the truth.”
E. Jean Carroll trial
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Trump attended almost all of the trial in January. testified briefly In his own defense. He left the courthouse 30 minutes before the jury awarded Carroll $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.
Carroll's lawyers repeatedly referred to a May 2023 ruling that failed to prevent Trump from repeating statements deemed defamatory, telling jurors during the trial to “stop” Trump. He called for a sufficient fine to be imposed.
The efforts seem to be paying off so far.
Trump has frequently called Carroll a “liar” and the lawsuit against her a “hoax,” but he has not repeated any of the claims that led to his double defamation defeat.
Carroll, a prominent advice columnist, wrote in a 2019 book that Trump sexually assaulted her in 1995 or 1996 during a chance encounter at the upscale Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York. Trump, who was president at the time, immediately denied it. The suspect called Carol a “terrible job” and claimed she had never met her. He made similar denials in public, on social media, and even in court, a pattern that Carroll's lawyers cited during the trial.
carol legal team highlighted Trump's denials were followed by a series of lengthy posts, text messages and emails threatening violence and rape against Carroll. They say she has been inundated with hateful messages, which have increased each time President Trump has launched attacks on her in public and decreased during the interim period.
Trump's lawyer Alina Haba focused on the “five-hour gap” between when Carroll's allegations first surfaced in 2019 and when Trump made his first defamatory statement. Haba, she said, has not proven that there is a “causal relationship” between Trump's comments and the subsequent harassment that Carroll received.
Haba reiterated that claim in a recent motion asking the judge in the case to ignore the jury's verdict, calling the findings “not “evidence presented at trial,'' but “confusion, speculation, and prejudice.'' It is based on.”
Haba and the judge frequently clashed during the trial, often having heated disagreements over court procedures and decisions. Mr. Haba said the dynamic was unfair to his clients and reiterated that criticism in a statement Friday.
“We are very confident that the Second Circuit will reverse this egregious ruling because of the numerous prejudicial errors made at the lower levels,” Hubba said.
