E Jean Carroll says Trump has no legal basis to delay paying $83.3m judgment
E Jean Carroll has filed an opposition to Donald Trump’s attempts to delay payment of a $83.3m judgment in their defamation trial, claiming the former president has “no basis” for staying the payment.
On Thursday, Carroll’s legal team argued that Trump had no legal basis for requesting a delay in his payment to Carroll. Her legal team also alleged that Trump had not provided additional information on how or when Carroll would be paid.
Related: E Jean Carroll aims to give defamation money ‘to something Trump hates’
“The reasoning Trump offers in seeking this extraordinary relief boils down to nothing more than ‘trust me’. He doesn’t offer any information about his finances or the nature and location of his assets. He doesn’t specify what percentage of his assets are liquid or explain how Carroll might go about collecting,” reads the 36-page opposition document.
“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,” the document continues.
The latest opposition is in response to a motion filed by Trump’s legal team to delay his payment to Carroll.
On Friday, Trump requested that Judge Lewis Kaplan allow Trump to delay paying Carroll, but without having to pay a bond amount that is required to appeal the judgment, Newsweek reported.
In New York, a person is required to pay 110% of the judgment amount in order to appeal a civil case. In Trump’s case, that would mean posting a cash bail of more than $91m.
Trump was given until 8 March to pay Carroll or pay the bond amount after Kaplan rejected his motion for a mistrial in early February.
The federal judge ruled that Trump’s issues with the judgment have no “merit”.
In January, a New York City jury ruled that Trump must pay Carroll the amount for defamatory comments he made in 2019 against her over allegations that he sexually abused her.
Trump quickly denounced the ruling as “absolutely ridiculous” on his social media platform Truth Social.
“I fully disagree with both verdicts and will be appealing this whole Biden-directed witch hunt focused on me and the Republican party. Our legal system is out of control and being used as a political weapon,” Trump wrote.
It is unclear how the former president will cover his growing legal penalties. In addition to the $83.3m payment to Carroll, Trump also owes $454m for overstating his assets on government documents, a judgment from his New York fraud trial.
