On Thursday, a federal judge refused Donald Trump’s request to delay enforcement of the writer E. Jean Carroll’s $83.3 million verdict in her recent defamation case.
The decision by United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan adds to force the former US president to line up an acceptable bond by Monday, so he can appeal.
In the January 26 verdict, Jurors agreed with Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, that Donald Trump had defamed her in June 2019 by refusing he had raped her in the mid-1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
On February 8, Kaplan made the verdict official and gave Trump 30 days to post a bond, which is expected to challenge the jury’s finding of liability and the amount of damages.
However, Trump had sought to delay enforcement of the verdict until Kaplan ruled on his motions to throw it out, which he filed on Tuesday. But the judge said Donald Trump should not have waited 25 days after the verdict before seeking a delay.
‘Trump failed to show how he might suffer injury if required to post a bond’, said the Judge. The Judge wrote, ‘Mr Trump’s current situation is a result of his dilatory actions’.
Kaplan has yet to rule on Trump’s request for a reduced bond. ‘Trump filed a timely motion to stay the ridiculous judgment and that many courts recognized the importance of temporary stays to consider such motions’, said Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for Trump’s presidential campaign.
Cheung said, ‘We look forward to continuing to litigate the case and to complete vindication of the truth’.
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