Donald Trump on Friday posted a $91.6 million bond to cover the defamation verdict in favor of writer E. Jean Carroll, and began his appeal of the case that arose from his branding her a liar after she accused him of raping her decades ago.

The bond from Federal Insurance Co, part of the insurer Chubb , would cover Carroll’s $83.3 million judgment if Trump were to lose his appeal of the Jan. 26 verdict and refuse to pay.

The posting of a bond also means Carroll, 80, wouldn’t collect on the judgment during the appeals process, which could take years.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Most people are most familiar with bail bonds, that are normally a 10% deposit. But this:

      It wasn’t clear what assets Trump was forced to pledge to secure the bond.

      Makes it sound like he put up property/assets to the bond company.

      Still risky considering trump inflates his prices. But that means it’s got to be substantial property.

      • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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        8 months ago

        From the article …

        Neil Pedersen, who owns Pedersen & Sons Surety Bond Agency in New York and is not involved in the case, said Trump almost certainly put up liquid assets as collateral.

        “The uncertainty of whether Trump will be elected in 2024 is reason enough to require liquid collateral to secure the bond, because no surety has had to enforce an indemnification agreement against a president,” he said.

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          It’s not a one or the other.

          But if Trump had the money, he’d post it himself.

          And no bondsman would take less than the price from trump.

          So like maybe 50/50 or some ratio

          • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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            8 months ago

            Trump had a choice and chose the bond instead.

            New York-based attorney, Colleen Kerwick, told Newsweek that Trump could pay the full $83.3 million to the court, which would hold it in reserve while Trump asks Kaplan to lower the amount he must pay Carroll.

            Alternatively, Trump could secure a bond and only have to post a small percentage of the award upfront.

            Source

            • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              I don’t know why you keep thinking I’m disagreeing with you…

              Cash is an asset. To get the bond he had to put assets up for the bond company. When it’s time to pay. If he doesn’t, they take the assets he agreed to put up.

              Due to him over valuing property, it’s likely if property was involved, the bonds company required more than what they would have to pay is, along with cash, stocks and other types of assets.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        Considering a lot of the more-recent inflated value comes from him being president and “people pay for that shit”…. Yeah, “risky” is an understatement

        • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          There’s bigger percents than 100%…

          He might have to put up $200 mil in assets, and they keep selling till they hit an amount, likely higher than the judgement.

          It’s a risky move for everyone. trump likely didn’t have any other options.

          • Crashumbc@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            Not really for Trump, he’ll just move what’s left of his assets and declare bankruptcy for the fourth time.

            He’ll keep scamming people till he dies

      • ShepherdPie@midwest.social
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        8 months ago

        It wasn’t clear what assets Trump was forced to pledge to secure the bond.

        Probably his vault filled with 40 million McChickens/McDoubles

  • stoly@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    So…what would be the grounds for appeal? Judge surely followed laws and procedures perfectly. Trump was sufficiently represented. I know it’s a delay tactic, but what argument would the make?

    • Billiam@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      “IT’S NOT FAAAAAAAAIIIIIIRR!”

      or

      “Your Honor, do you really want to live in a world where the President-For-Life can’t rape whoever he wants?”

    • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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      8 months ago

      From the article …

      In seeking a new trial, lawyers for Trump said the verdict was tainted by Kaplan’s decision to strike Trump’s testimony about his state of mind when he disparaged Carroll.

      According to the lawyers, Trump’s statement that “I just wanted to defend myself, my family, and, frankly, the presidency” was relevant to whether he had acted maliciously, and that excluding it “all but assured” a big punitive damages award.

      The lawyers also said Kaplan erred in instructing jurors about the burden of proof needed to show malice.

      • stoly@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I missed that, thanks. So they are going on the idea that he wasn’t liable for defamation because he didn’t KNOWINGLY make a disparaging comment. So, still litigating the original case, which has no bearing here on the second case. The reason the judge didn’t allow it is that it is a fact of record that he committed defamation originally. The second trial was only for the second defamation based on the first one. Trump is trying to retry the original lawsuit, which he can’t do.

        With luck, this gets rejected instantly,

        • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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          8 months ago

          With a normal SCOTUS I think it would. Under the current composition I’m not so sure.

          • stoly@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            We’re in NY state court here. Federal appeals courts don’t tell states how to run their own laws and assume that each state’s courts understands their laws better. In any case, he’s a very long shot away from going into federal court and then would have to raise a federal question to be heard there. He’s something like 5 appeals away from SCOTUS if he could ever even get into federal court.

            • girlfreddy@lemmy.caOP
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              8 months ago

              You’re right. I just lept over the state’s juristiction straight to SCOTUS.

              My bad.

              • dezmd@lemmy.worldM
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                8 months ago

                Don’t worry, SCOTUS demonstrated they are willing to leap over states’ jurisdiction by imposing federal power on state primaries used by private political parties, primaries that appoint state based electors to select their candidates for a coming federal election at a private national party meeting, by forcing Trump back onto Colorado’s primary. So I expect them to fast track this too.

                Authoritarianism centralizing control of power seems to be falling into place as the default state of our political environment, even regardless of government frameworks, political party and local/state/national differences. We are all in trouble folks.

          • bradorsomething@ttrpg.network
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            8 months ago

            I’m not sure he has a constitutional argument in this case.

            Wait, this is trump. I’m not sure he has a valid constitutional argument here.

    • orcrist@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      The argument is not his goal. Denying badness is. There is no end game, but then again, he is an old man, so that is one angle.

    • Igloojoe@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Probably to delay until IF he becomes president, he will just pardon himself away from all the lawsuits.

  • merc@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Someone on Mastodon noticed that the judge is giving E. Jean Carroll’s attorney’s a few days to object to the surety of the bond.

    A guy who was just found guilty of inflating the values of his assets may well be trying to use those inflated assets as collateral for his bond. In this case, Chubb is a multi-billion dollar company so they’d be on the hook if he didn’t pay, or used inflated assets, so I don’t know if her lawyers will have a reason to object. But, it’s interesting that they do still have a chance to object.

  • irotsoma@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    He’ll just claim that Chubb can’t collect because he’s president (regardless of whether he wins or not, he’ll claim he did just like last time). No way they’ll get anything from him. He obviously has connections in the company to get that through.