MANHATTAN (CN) — Former president Donald Trump has posted a $91.63 million bond to appeal the judgment against him in E. Jean Carroll’s federal defamation suit, according to Friday court filings.
"President Trump respectfully requests that this court recognize the supersedeas bond obtained by President Trump in the sum of $91,630,000.00 and approve it as adequate and sufficient to stay the enforcement of the judgment, to the extent that the judgment awards damages, pending the ultimate disposition of President Trump's appeal," Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba wrote in a document confirming the bond.
In January a New York jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll, a former Elle Magazine advice columnist, $83.3 million for defaming her when she came forward about being sexually assaulted by Trump.
Alongside the posted bond, Trump filed a notice of appeal Friday to formally challenge the jury’s findings. His bond, which was placed in an escrow account, will stay the enforcement of those damages as he appeals the verdict.
The bond amount is larger than the damages awarded because the federal court generally requires a party to post 110% of the judgment. Should the appeal fail, Carroll can then collect the money.
Court records show that Trump actually signed the bond on Tuesday — the same day his lawyers asked U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan for a new trial in Carrol’s defamation suit. Trump’s attorneys claimed that Kaplan’s errors “infected” the outcome of the trials with “erroneous and prejudicial” jury instructions.
The bond comes from Federal Insurance Company, an insurance broker owned by the Chubb Corporation, with which Trump appears to have a speckled past.
During his presidency, Trump appointed Chubb’s CEO Evan Greenberg to be a trade and negotiations advisor. But Greenberg has also been a sharp critic of the former president, chiding him for various policy decisions and the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The terms of the bond remain unclear. Chubb declined to comment on its details when contacted on Friday.
"As a matter of policy, we do not comment on client-specific information," a spokesperson for the company told Courthouse News in a statement. "Our surety division provides appeal bonds in the normal course of business. These bonds are an ordinary and important part of the American justice system, protecting the rights of both defendants and plaintiffs."
Before posting bond, Trump made numerous requests for a stay of the judgment as recently as this week. Kaplan rejected his latest ask on Thursday.
“Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions,” Kaplan wrote. “He has had since January 26 to organize his finances with the knowledge that he might need to bond this judgment, yet he waited until 25 days after the jury verdict... to file his prior motion for an unsecured or partially secured stay.”
Still, it’s the lesser of Trump’s two hefty financial burdens in New York courts. Last month, a state judge ordered him to pay nearly half a billion dollars for misrepresenting his assets to banks and insurers.
“The frauds found here leap off the page and shock the conscience,” New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur Engoron wrote in his scathing $464 million judgment against the former president.
Trump is appealing that ruling, too. But he’s yet to post the significant bond required to stay the enforcement of that ruling. Trump unsuccessfully offered to post a $100 million bond, a far cry from the roughly $500 million likely required for a judgment of that size.
In addition to the financial penalty, Engoron’s ruling also barred Trump for three years from serving as the head of his business or borrowing from New York lenders. An appellate judge temporarily stayed those penalties, though, giving Trump a bit more wiggle room to get bond money together.
Trump will be back in a New York courthouse later this month. This time, he’s facing criminal accusations from Manhattan prosecutors that he falsified business records to cover up hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels. Jury selection for that case starts March 25 in Trump’s first of four potential criminal trials.
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