E. Jean Carroll’s Lawyers Foil Trump’s Quiet Attempt to Stall $91 Million Payment
E. Jean Carroll’s Lawyers Foil Trump’s Quiet Attempt to Stall $91 Million Payment
Donald Trump almost got away with an underhanded 60-day delay to pay E. Jean Carroll the $83 million he owes her for losing his rape defamation trial.
When Donald Trump posted the $91.6 million bond on Friday allowing him to appeal the E. Jean Carroll decision without paying her immediately, it set off an interesting scramble to unpack why Federal Insurance Company—a subsidiary of Chubb Insurance Company—would lend to a notoriously unreliable borrower.
But there was also some fine print in the bond that would have, curiously, given Trump an additional 30 days to come up with the money—as well as another 30 days for FIC to come up with the money if Trump failed to pay. That meant Trump had found a way to unilaterally stall paying up, pending the consent of the court.
It looked like just the latest way Trump had, like Darth Vader before him, altered the deal. And for three days, it seemed as if Trump had gotten away with a minor tweak in court paperwork that would have created a two-month delay in having to pay a cent to the journalist he defamed—even if he lost the rape defamation case on appeal.
But over the weekend, Carroll’s attorney spotted the odd jumble of legalese and pressured Trump’s legal team to give up the ploy for extra time. On Monday, she alerted U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan of the new deal. And in a sign of just how interested he is, the judge immediately responded in a handwritten note scribbled over her letter to the court.
“The parties shall submit revised documentation promptly,” the judge wrote back.
HA! Damn her lawyer's good. Trump cases seem to be the place attorneys can really show their legal chops (working on the not-Trump side, anyway).
They also show their chops on the Trump side.
Or rather their lack of chops.
Notable that this judge is also really good at judging.
While notable, I wouldn't pay any heed to the method in which the judge delivered this news, as the last line suggests. It's not unusual for a judge to issue responses and quickly written notes on motions. They're reading stacks of papers a day and just jotting their shit down and moving on.
Really? That's your nitpick? Not the elbow-jab-har-har Darth Vader analogy hur-dur? 🤮
edit: apologies, I just looked at the source. Fuck, I wish there was a way to filter out every post that cites that endless squirt of lukewarm shit called The Daily Beast.
On one hand, life’s short & +/-$3m in interest is a lot.
On this other hand:
N. Alex Hanley, an expert in how companies appeal enormous judgments, thinks the potential two-month gap doesn’t sound all that odd, given the immense amount of money in question and the huge players involved.
Yeah, big judgement.
Still, two weeks for impeached president and two weeks for the bond company still sound like enough time.