Donald Trump appeals E. Jean Carroll's $83.3 million defamation verdict
Donald Trump on Friday appealed the writer E. Jean Carroll's $83.3 million verdict in her recent defamation case, which arose from his branding her a liar after she accused him of raping her decades ago.
Trump said his appeal to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan will cover «all adverse orders, rulings, decrees, decisions, opinions, memoranda, conclusions, or findings» leading to the Jan. 26 verdict.
The former U.S. president also revealed he has lined up a $91.63 million bond from Federal Insurance Co for the appeal, reflecting the trial court's usual practice that bonds equal 110% of judgments.
Trump previously argued he shouldn't have to post any security because Carroll was sufficiently protected. Carroll had objected that this boiled down to Trump saying «trust me.»
The appeal stemmed from a Manhattan jury's conclusion that Trump had defamed Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, in June 2019 by denying that he raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Jurors awarded Carroll $18.3 million of compensatory damages, including $7.3 million for emotional harm and $11 million for harm to her reputation. They also awarded her $65 million of punitive damages.
Trump has said he shouldn't owe anything, and alternatively that both sums should be reduced substantially.
He still has to post sufficient security for his expected appeal of last month's $454.2 million verdict in a civil fraud
