Broke Trump’s Latest Desperate Strategy to Avoid Paying E. Jean Carroll
After losing the second defamation case brought by writer E. Jean Carroll, Donald Trump has a new demand for Judge Lewis Kaplan: Reduce the $83.3 million penalty, or do the whole trial over again.
In a motion filed in court on Tuesday, Trump’s attorneys argued that Kaplan had overstepped by curtailing the bombastic disruptor’s testimony, limiting his answers to just a handful of pre-reviewed questions in an attempt to limit Trump’s courtroom outbursts and to streamline an off-the-rails trial.
“This Court’s erroneous decision to dramatically limit the scope of President Trump’s testimony almost certainly influenced the jury’s verdict, and thus a new trial is warranted,” the motion reads.
Trump’s team also claimed that the harm inflicted upon Carroll was “garden variety,” and that the columnist’s legal team failed to tie the harassment she endured after going public with sexual assault allegations to the GOP primary front-runner. All in all, Trump’s lawyers requested the judge downsize the self-purported billionaire’s penalty to a fraction of the jury-ordered figure, describing some of the fines as “grossly excessive.”
The filing is, frankly, a long-shot bid, and Carroll’s team has already opposed the motion, calling one of his arguments “laughable.”
Meanwhile, Trump insisted in interviews Tuesday that he has “a lot of money” and doesn’t “worry about money,” despite trying to worm his way out of his legal comeuppance—of which Carroll’s judgment amounts to just one small part. Trump has twice asked Kaplan to delay requiring payment to Carroll. The first time was last month, and Kaplan denied but asked Carroll’s attorneys to respond. In a filing last week, Carroll’s lawyers blasted Trump’s legal reasoning for reducing the fine, saying it “boils down to nothing more than ‘trust me.’”
Trump asked again on Monday, requesting a reduced bond of $24.475 million. Kaplan shut him down again.