Former President Donald Trump will deposit $5.55 million as security into a federal court as he pursues appealing a jury verdict that declared him guilty of sexually abusing and defaming the writer, E. Jean Carroll.
Trump is appealing the $5 million May verdict by a Manhattan federal jury, which ruled that in October, the former President defamed the ex-Elle magazine columnist by describing the claim that he raped her in the mid-1990s as a hoax and a lie.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, the judge responsible for overseeing the trial, agreed to the deposit proposed by Trump’s lawyer Joseph Tacopina. Tacopina’s law firm had been holding onto the $5.55 million in the meantime.
Courts typically require individuals to deposit 111 percent of a judgment when they appeal.
If Trump’s Appeals, including a possible Supreme Court appeal, are unsuccessful, Carroll can collect her $5 million.
The money set aside, including interest, would be returned to the former President if he prevailed.
Carroll’s lawyers have also agreed to the $5.55 million deposit.
The GOP’s Presidential nomination frontrunner had asked for a new trial on June 8, pointing out that the damages were excessive partly because the jury found that Carroll was sexually abused, not raped as she had alleged.
On Thursday (June 22), lawyers for Carroll called Trump’s request to appeal “magical thinking.”
Carroll is also suing the former President for $10 million relating to his June 2019 denial of her rape claim.
The author also seeks punitive damages following repeated denials in a CNN town hall the day after the jury verdict.
