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.
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
Yes, he could get a bond. But these bonds are generally 100% collateralized, because the bank is unlikely to get their money back. So that just means his property will be under lien during the appeal and auctioned off if he loses.
Generally. Trump has an uncanny ability to secure bank loans though. And, if New York requires him to sell his properties in the fraud case it wouldn’t surprise me if he was able to leverage the impending sale to secure the bond and then pull, well, a trump.
Remember, the rules you and I play by are not in effect here.
