By Madeline Halpert & Kayla Epstein for the BBC
Former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Photo: AFP
Donald Trump has posted a US$91.6 million (NZ$155.4m) bond as he appeals against the verdict in E Jean Carroll's defamation lawsuit against him.
A jury in January found Trump owed the former columnist millions of dollars for defamation when he denied he sexually assaulted her.
A judge had rejected the former president's request for more time to secure a bond to cover the penalty.
Trump also owes over US$400m in a separate fraud case.
When posting the bond, Trump asked to pause the verdict while he fights to reverse the decision in a separate court.
"Due to the numerous prejudicial errors made at the lower level, we are highly confident that the Second Circuit will overturn this egregious judgment," the former president's lawyer, Alina Habba, said in a statement.
A different jury last year found Trump sexually assaulted Carroll, a former Elle Magazine columnist, in a Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman store in the 1990s. The jury found Trump liable of defamation for lying about the assault in 2019, and in January he was ordered to pay her US$83.3m (NZ$134.8m).
The bond payment is equal to 110 percent of the amount he was required to provide in order to appeal against the verdict.
Trump was also ordered to pay Carroll US$5m in a separate defamation case related to the sexual assault last year. He put up the money shortly after.
Judge Lewis Kaplan made the verdict official in February and gave Trump 30 days to post a bond or put up the cash.
On Thursday, Judge Kaplan said Trump waited too long - 25 days - before seeking to delay the payment.
"Mr Trump's current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions," he wrote.
Carroll's lawyers opposed the request, writing to Judge Kaplan that Trump "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".
A spokesperson for the former president said the decision was "a continuation of a totally lawless witch hunt," a frequent comment from Trump's team throughout his numerous legal trials.
But the 77-year-old is facing mounting legal bills and damages this year.
In February, Judge Arthur Engoron ordered Trump to pay $355m - which amounts to more than $450m with interest - for fraudulently inflating his assets to secure better loan deals.
An appellate judge rejected Trump's request to post a bond for just a fraction of the penalty in that case.
The likely Republican presidential nominee claimed this week that he was not worried about securing the funds in his legal cases.
"I have a lot of money. I can do what I want to do," he told Fox News on Tuesday.
- This story was first published by the BBC
