Donald Trump’s motion seeking to delay paying E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million amounts to “the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin” and should be flatly denied, the writer’s legal team argued Thursday.
“He doesn’t even acknowledge the risks that now accompany his financial situation, from a half-billion-dollar judgment obtained by the New York Attorney General to the 91 felony charges that might end his career as a businessman permanently,” Carroll lawyer Roberta Kaplan wrote in court filings.
“He simply asks the Court to ‘trust me’ and offers, in a case with an $83.3 million judgment against him, the court filing equivalent of a paper napkin; signed by the least trustworthy of borrowers.”
Trump lawyer Alina Habba last week asked Manhattan Federal Court Judge Lewis Kaplan to temporarily halt collection of the mammoth sum a jury decided he owed Carroll in January for defaming her or authorize him to deposit a fraction of it in a court-controlled account pending the outcome of his post-trial arguments.
The request was similar to an appeals court motion regarding his civil fraud case that failed Wednesday. Trump has until March 25 to secure more than $454 million as he appeals the financially crushing ruling.
In early February, Kaplan rejected Trump’s motion for a mistrial, giving him about a month to pay Carroll or secure the money with the courts to ensure she gets paid if he fails to get the judgment overturned.
On Sunday, the judge noted the former president’s request to delay payment “without posting any security” was coming at the eleventh hour and said he would wait for Carroll’s side to respond before ruling.
In total, Trump owes Carroll $88.3 million. Last May, another jury determined he sexually abused her in the 1990s and defamed her after his presidency and should pay $5 million in damages, which Trump deposited with the court on time. He is appealing that verdict.
Soon after Carroll’s first trial, Judge Kaplan decided Trump also defamed her when he was president, the basis of her first lawsuit of two, leaving jurors at the second trial to decide only how much more he owed.
In Trump’s request, Habba told Kaplan she was confident Trump’s post-trial arguments would “substantially reduce, if not eliminate, the amount of the judgment” to $22.2 million or, adding in a footnote, $36.6 million.
“[Under] this district’s common practice of requiring a bond of 110 percent of the judgment, President Trump faces the prospect of posting a bond of $91.63 million … which will come with very substantial, non-recoverable financial costs. These costs plainly constitute irreparable injury,” Habba wrote.
In their scathing opposition filed Thursday, Carroll’s lawyers said the request was based on “no evidence at all,” contained “back-of-the-envelope calculations,” and was reliant on precedent issued “as teenagers say today, in the ‘last century.’”
“There is not a single exhibit, declaration, or affidavit — literally, no evidence at all — attached to his motion. He offers no proof of what assets he possesses, what they are worth, where they are located, whether they are liquid or illiquid, whether they are unencumbered by debt, or whether they could be used to satisfy the judgment,” Carroll’s attorney wrote.
“[By] the time the post-trial motions [or the appeal] are fully resolved, Trump may be in a very different position. He could then be President of the United States; he could then be a convicted criminal serving time behind bars; or, given his advanced age, Carroll may be forced to reckon with his estate.”
Carroll’s lawyers said Trump’s financial history outside his legal battles was further proof he couldn’t be trusted. They noted his years-long effort to keep his taxes private when he was president and how he filed for bankruptcy six times between 1990 and 2009.
The GOP front runner’s New York lawsuits have cost him more than half a billion dollars in 2024 alone, and he’s waking up $112,000 deeper in debt each day, with the interest growing on the judgment in the AG case. It’s as yet unclear how he plans to settle his soaring debts. Trump has repeatedly said his real estate and brand are worth billions and claimed he had access to $400 million in cash last year.
In addition to his civil woes, the GOP front-runner faces 91 felonies in four states stemming from his alleged efforts to interfere in the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections and mishandling of classified documents. He denies all charges.
