Former President Donald Trump’s lawyers asked a judge on Tuesday to delay enforcing the $83 million defamation penalty a jury handed down in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation trial.
Trump attorneys Alina Habba and John Sauer asked New York Judge Lewis Kaplan to extend the stay of the ruling, which is set to expire on Monday. Trump will have to pay Carroll or put up $91 million in cash bond needed to appeal the ruling.
In New York, a defendant must pay a cash bond of 110% of the judgment to appeal the ruling of a civil case.
"Requiring President Trump to post a bond or other security before this Court's ruling on his stay motion threatens to impose irreparable injury in the form of substantial costs (which may or may not be recoverable)," the attorneys wrote.
The letter asked the judge to extend the stay through at least Thursday.
“Habba is asking Judge Lew Kaplan — who has yet to rule on Trump's request to stay enforcement of the $83.3 million E. Jean Carroll judgment as his post-trial motions are resolved — for some mercy,” tweeted MSNBC legal analyst Lisa Rubin. “Specifically, she notes that the existing stay expires Monday and asks that if Kaplan does not rule by tomorrow, he should at least stay enforcement of the judgment for three business days after that ruling.”
Rubin added that the letter suggests “Trump could be having difficulty arranging for a bond of $91-plus million.”
“Expecting that Kaplan will deny his request for a longer stay, he is trying to buy himself time to obtain one or free up sufficient cash,” she wrote.
The New York Times’ Maggie Haberman told CNN on Thursday that the repeated requests for a delay suggest “there is clearly a problem so far in acquiring a bond.”
"It doesn't mean that they won't get there, but I'm not sure what a couple of more days delay is going to do. And the judge has already said no delay previously,” she said.
Habba previously argued in a filing that “requirement of a bond would be inappropriate … where the defendant’s ability to pay the judgment is so plain that the cost of the bond would be a waste of money.”
E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan rejected that argument in a letter to the judge.
“Trump offers no alternative means other than his own unsubstantiated say so that he will have $83.3 million available when Carroll prevails on appeal,” the attorney wrote.
Judge Kaplan issued an order on Monday stating that a ruling on the stay request will be “rendered as promptly as is reasonably possible.”
“Without implying what that decision will be or when it will be made, however, it will not come today,” he wrote.
