Current:Home > reviewsJudge denies Trump relief from $83.3 million defamation judgment -FutureFinance
Judge denies Trump relief from $83.3 million defamation judgment
View
Date:2025-04-14 15:23:07
NEW YORK (AP) — The federal judge who oversaw a New York defamation trial that resulted in an $83.3 million award to a longtime magazine columnist who says Donald Trump raped her in the 1990s refused Thursday to relieve the ex-president from the verdict’s financial pinch.
Judge Lewis A. Kaplan told Trump’s attorney in a written order that he won’t delay deadlines for posting a bond that would ensure 80-year-old writer E. Jean Carroll can be paid the award if the judgment survives appeals.
The judge said any financial harm to the Republican front-runner for the presidency results from his slow response to the late-January verdict in the defamation case resulting from statements Trump made about Carroll while he was president in 2019 after she revealed her claims against him in a memoir.
At the time, Trump accused her of making up claims that he raped her in the dressing room of a luxury Manhattan department store in spring 1996. A jury last May at a trial Trump did not attend awarded Carroll $5 million in damages, finding that Trump sexually abused her but did not rape her as rape was defined under New York state law. It also concluded that he defamed her in statements in October 2022.
Trump attended the January trial and briefly testified, though his remarks were severely limited by the judge, who had ruled that the jury had to accept the May verdict and was only to decide how much in damages, if any, Carroll was owed for Trump’s 2019 statements. In the statements, Trump claimed he didn’t know Carroll and accused her of making up lies to sell books and harm him politically.
Trump’s lawyers have challenged the judgment, which included a $65 million punitive award, saying there was a “strong probability” it will be reduced or eliminated on appeal.
In his order Thursday, Kaplan noted that Trump’s lawyers waited 25 days to seek to delay when a bond must be posted. The judgment becomes final Monday.
“Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions,” Kaplan wrote.
The judge noted that Trump’s lawyers seek to delay execution of the jury award until three days after Kaplan rules on their request to suspend the jury award pending consideration of their challenges to the judgment because preparations to post a bond could “impose irreparable injury in the form of substantial costs.”
Kaplan, though, said the expense of ongoing litigation does not constitute irreparable injury.
“Nor has Mr. Trump made any showing of what expenses he might incur if required to post a bond or other security, on what terms (if any) he could obtain a conventional bond, or post cash or other assets to secure payment of the judgment, or any other circumstances relevant to the situation,” the judge said.
Trump’s attorney, Alina Habba, did not immediately comment.
Since the January verdict, a state court judge in New York in a separate case has ordered Trump and his companies to pay $355 million in penalties for a yearslong scheme to dupe banks and others with financial statements that inflated his wealth. With interest, he owes the state nearly $454 million.
veryGood! (84)
Related
- Macy's says employee who allegedly hid $150 million in expenses had no major 'impact'
- Will the feds block a grocery megamerger? Kroger and Albertsons will soon find out
- Defense Secretary Austin was treated for prostate cancer and a urinary tract infection, doctors say
- Secret tunnel in NYC synagogue leads to brawl between police and worshippers
- New Mexico governor seeks funding to recycle fracking water, expand preschool, treat mental health
- National title puts Michigan at No. 1 in college football's final NCAA Re-Rank 1-133
- Hayley Erbert Praises Husband Derek Hough's Major Milestone After Unfathomable Health Battle
- Red Cross declares an emergency blood shortage, as number of donors hits 20-year low
- Warm inflation data keep S&P 500, Dow, Nasdaq under wraps before Fed meeting next week
- Robert Downey Jr. announces on Golden Globes stage: 'I took a beta-blocker.' What do they do?
Ranking
- 'We're reborn!' Gazans express joy at returning home to north
- Young man killed by shark while diving for scallops off Pacific coast of Mexico
- Iowa school shooter's parents say they had 'no inkling of horrible violence'
- Kremlin foe Navalny says he’s been put in a punishment cell in an Arctic prison colony
- Nevada attorney general revives 2020 fake electors case
- Irish singer Sinead O’Connor died from natural causes, coroner says
- Nearly a third of Americans expect mortgage rates to fall in 2024
- Let Kate Hudson's Advice Help You Not Lose Motivation for Your Health Goals in 10 Days
Recommendation
McKinsey to pay $650 million after advising opioid maker on how to 'turbocharge' sales
Rays shortstop Wander Franco faces lesser charge as judge analyzes evidence in ongoing probe
Red Cross declares an emergency blood shortage, as number of donors hits 20-year low
Ex-Green Beret stands with Venezuelan coup plotter ahead of U.S. sentencing on terror charges
The Super Bowl could end in a 'three
Border Patrol, Mexico's National Guard ramp up efforts to curb illegal border crossings
Bottled water contains up to 100 times more plastic than previously estimated, new study says
Illinois' Terrence Shannon Jr. files restraining order against school following suspension