E. Jean Carroll’s Lawyers Foil Trump’s Quiet Attempt to Stall $91 Million Payment

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.