Former President Donald Trump must pay writer E. Jean Carroll over $83 million in damages for repeatedly defaming her, a jury found Friday.
The nine-person jury began deliberations in federal court in New York at 1:40 p.m. ET and reached a verdict in just under three hours.
People in this thread saying he’s not going to pay. How can he just not pay if it’s a court order? Genuinely curious how that works. (Assuming the appeal is denied or whatever the final number he owes is).
Someone can probably give a better answer, but it starts by him not paying.
He will appeal the result and that could easily take another year or so, during which time he doesn’t pay.
Then he will just not pay, that will take some time since you can’t complain to the courts that he didn’t pay after 1 day, it probably takes at least 90 days, but realistically probably closer to 120 or 150 days so that he is REALLY overdue.
Then he is given a grace period to respond, that’s another 30 to 60 days. He’ll just say that he can’t. That goes back and forth for a while, at least 6 months total.
Eventually the courts might put some sort of lien on Trump’s income except he doesn’t make money the traditional way, so it won’t pay out. That takes another 6 months or so.
Then maybe they start going after assets. Assets aren’t just free, so that takes even more time.
Also during all of this Trump moves assets around. He isn’t allowed to, but he’s already not allowed to and he has.
At some point in this process an agreement for a settlement is brought up. Trump will offer pennies on the dollar, which no one will accept. Trump will use this to bide even more time.
It’s neverending legal maneuvering. Just bullshit on bullshit on bullshit. Eventually someone gives up or dies. It takes tens of tens of years. At any point Trump can just start to pay a little bit of it, then stop after a few months and the process starts again.
BTW if you don’t pay your bills the full fury comes down on you. No baby gloves.
In order to file an appeal, he has to pay immediately. The money doesn’t go to Carroll, it goes into an escrow account until she wins the appeal. But either way, Trump is out $83 million. No pay = no appeal.
If he doesn’t appeal and doesn’t pay, then in 30 days Carroll’s lawyers will have access to his bank accounts and properties. At that point it won’t matter if he writes a check, they can simply take what they are entitled to directly from his bank. If there isn’t enough in his account, they can start an auction for his properties. The only thing Trump could do would be to declare bankruptcy, and this would only slow down the process not stop it.
Trump can get away with not paying his contractors, but he can’t get away with not paying a court judgment. Of note, back when he owed Carroll $5 million, he paid on time.
Depends.
He could get a bond to secure the appeal of he can find a bank who will lend to him. Which might be easier, with what looks like the impending sale of his New York properties
