Judge approves Trump’s $91 million bond in E. Jean Carroll lawsuit

A federal judge signed off on former President Trump’s roughly $91 million appeal bond in advice columnist E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit on Tuesday.

Carroll did not oppose Trump’s bond application after his lawyers agreed to make one change to the conditions.

In January, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million for defaming Carroll by denying her claims of sexual assault when the longtime Elle columnist came forward in 2019. A previous jury had found Trump liable for sexually abusing her.

Trump’s bond approval from U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the litigation, allows the former president to continue fighting his staggering defamation judgment while preventing Carroll from taking steps to enforce it.

“The Amended Supersedeas Bond is deemed sufficient to stay execution of the Judgment to the extent that the Judgment awards damages,” Kaplan wrote in his order.

The former president has begun to appeal the recent verdict and has also filed a motion for a new trial.

Previously, Trump sought to move ahead without posting a bond or at least getting the amount reduced.

On Friday, Trump ultimately posted the full amount to meet his deadline after Kaplan, an appointee of former President Clinton, denied one of Trump’s delay attempts.

The $91.63 million bond is 110 percent of the judgment, as is typical.

Carroll’s lawyers opposed Trump’s request for a delay, demanding he post the full bond amount while raising doubt about his ability to pay given Trump’s recent civil fraud judgment that stands above $450 million and his criminal cases.

Court documents indicate the major insurance company Chubb underwrote Trump’s bond, but it remains unclear what cash or collateral the former president was required to put down.

Trump’s lawyers are hoping to get the recent judgment tossed entirely or at least reduced,   claiming the amount ordered by the jury is excessive.

The former president has also argued Carroll can’t show a causal link between the harms she suffered and Trump’s statements, and the judge prejudiced him by limiting the scope of his testimony.

As the post-trial battles have progressed, Trump has continued publicly attacking Carroll and the judge.

After he posted his bond, Trump over the weekend continued to chew out the advice columnist, echoing many of his original denials that were ruled defamatory.

“I could say things about what it would cost normally,” Trump said at a Georgia campaign rally on Saturday. “$91 million, based on false accusations made about me by a woman that I knew nothing about. Didn’t know, never heard of, I know nothing about her. She wrote a book, she said things, and when I denied it, I said, it’s so crazy it’s false, I got sued for defamation.”

And in an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Monday, Trump again claimed he had never met Carroll.

“People aren’t moving into New York, because of the kind of crap they’re pulling on me,” Trump said.