Former U.S. President Donald J. Trump speaks outside Trump Tower ahead of a two-day trip to Des Moines, Iowa, Manhattan, New York, U.S., May 31, 2023 fist up.
Kyle Mazza | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Donald Trump is willing to post $5.6 million in surety as the former president accuses him of sexually abusing author E. Jean Carroll in the 1990s A civil judgment defaming her was appealed years later.
If Trump loses, Carroll will receive the $5 million a jury awarded her in the case in May, or any adjusted verdict, according to a joint stipulation filed by Trump’s attorneys and Carroll’s attorneys.
But the rule says that if Trump wins the appeal, he will get back the bond, “and any interest earned on those funds,” which are held in accounts controlled by the court.
If an appeals court or the Supreme Court sends the case back to the U.S. District Court in Manhattan for further litigation, the funds will remain in place until any ruling against Carroll “becomes final and not appealable,” the documents said.
Former Elle Advice Columnist E. Jean Carroll Watches Former President Donald Trump’s Attorney Joe Tacopina at Civil Trial Closing Arguments, Carroll Alleges Trump Raped Her in a Department Store Dressing Room in the Mid-1990s, and Defamation, New York, May 8, 2023.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Carroll claims in the lawsuit that Trump, the leading candidate for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, raped her after a chance encounter in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman store in the mid-1990s.
She also claims he defamed her last fall in a statement he issued while denying her allegations.
After the May trial, a jury found Trump, 77, responsible for Carroll’s sexual abuse but not for raping her. Jurors also found he had defamed her.
Trump has asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn the ruling.
Separately, he has asked District Judge Lewis Kaplan to order a retrial solely on the issue of monetary damages.
In a June 8 court filing, Trump’s attorney, Joseph Tacopina, argued that under case law, the jury found Trump sexually abused Carroll, 79. The $2 million awarded to her was “grossly excessive.” Tacopina said Carroll’s damages for the claim should be “in the six-figure range” at best.
Defense attorneys also argued that Carroll’s $2.7 million award should be significantly reduced to no more than $368,000.
In a letter to Kaplan on Friday, Tacopina wrote that his law firm currently holds $5.6 million of Trump’s funds in a trust account, and that if the judge agrees to the rule, they will transfer the funds to Trump. The funds were deposited into accounts controlled by the court.
Trump could be ordered to pay Carroll more money next year.
Kaplan is scheduled to begin hearing another of Carroll’s lawsuits against Trump on Jan. 15. In this case, Carroll accused Trump of defaming her with comments he made about her during his presidency after she first made the rape allegation public.
Carroll is seeking at least $10 million in damages in the case. Kaplan this month allowed her to amend the existing lawsuit to include comments Trump made about her on CNN in May, the day after Trump lost the first trial.
Earlier this month, Trump was criminally indicted by a federal grand jury in Miami for keeping hundreds of classified documents at his Florida residence after he left the White House in January 2021. He pleaded not guilty in the case.
He also pleaded not guilty in a New York state case to nearly three dozen criminal charges of falsifying business records related to hush money payments to two women who said he had sex with him ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is under separate criminal investigation by federal prosecutors for trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 election and by Atlanta prosecutors for trying to get Georgia officials to reverse President Joe Biden’s victory in the state that year .