Donald Trump stumps up $137 million bond to appeal defamation verdict

Former US president Donald Trump has stumped up a $137 million bond he needs to appeal a sexual assault defamation case.

Donald Trump has obtained a bond sufficient to cover an $125 million ($US83.3 million) penalty as the former president appeals a jury’s verdict in a sexual assault defamation case, court documents showed Friday.

On January 26 Mr Trump was ordered by a jury in New York to compensate the writer E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed, a decision he is now challenging in a higher court.

Former US President and 2024 presidential hopeful Donald Trump. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said that he had obtained a bond of $137 million ($US91.6 million), according to a document filed with a Manhattan court.

He was ordered to pay $97 million ($US65 million) in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Ms Carroll, $11 million ($US7.3 million) in compensatory damages and $16.5 million ($US11 million) for a reputational repair program.

Mr Trump was required to either post the full amount of the compensation as he appeals, or a bond that could be executed in the event that his challenge is unsuccessful.

The judge who oversaw the case denied his team’s application to postpone a Monday deadline to post a bond to cover the penalty, US media reported.

Donald Trump's lawyer, Alina Habba. Picture: AFP

E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York. Picture: AFP

Mr Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Ms Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — used his Truth Social platform to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Ms Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called “an extremely abusive individual.”

He was not required to attend the trial or to testify.

However, he has used the case, as well as others he faces, to generate heated media coverage and to fuel his claims of being victimised as he campaigns for a return to the White House in November’s election.

Mr Trump has also been faced with the task of securing a bond for his much larger civil fraud ruling which requires him to pay $534 million ($US355 million) plus significant and mounting interest.

His lawyers offered a $150 million ($US100 million) bond to partially cover that penalty as he appeals, but that was rejected by an appeals judge.

Lara Trump, daughter-in-law of former US President Donald Trump, attends a Republican National Committee meeting on March 8, 2024, in Houston, Texas. Picture: AFP

Trump’s takeover of Republican party complete

Meanwhile, the Republican National Committee elected Mr Trump’s allies, including his daughter-in-law, to top leadership positions Friday, tightening the former president’s grip over the party ahead of the November election.

Mr Trump, 77, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, put forward a slate of hand-picked candidates last month to head the RNC, which raises funds for Republican candidates and doles out electoral cash.

Michael Whatley, the leader of the Republican Party in North Carolina, and Mr Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump were elected respectively RNC chair and co-chair by voice vote at a meeting of the 168 RNC members in Houston.

Both were unopposed.

“The RNC is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee Donald J. Trump as the 47th president of the United States,” Whatley said in his acceptance speech.

“We will work relentlessly in every state to ensure that it is easy to vote and hard to cheat.” Lara Trump, who is married to the former president’s middle son Eric, said the party has “one goal” on election day.

“The goal on November 5 is to win, as my father-in-law says, ‘bigly,’” she said.

“This isn’t just about right versus left, Republican versus Democrat. It’s about good versus evil.” The former president endorsed another ally, campaign strategist Chris LaCivita, to be the chief operating officer of the RNC.

“This group of three is highly talented, battle-tested, and smart,” Trump said in a statement.

He described his daughter-in-law as “an extremely talented communicator” who is “dedicated to all that MAGA stands for,” a reference to his “Make America Great Again” slogan.

Focus on defeating Biden

In addition to ensuring that party funds are allocated to her father-in-law’s presidential campaign, Lara Trump has also argued that paying his legal bills is of “big interest” to Republican voters.

Mr Trump has been faced with mounting legal bills from the various criminal and civil cases filed against him and has been drawing on funds to pay them from donations to his Save America political action committee.

In selecting Mr Whatley, Mr Trump said he is “committed to election integrity, which we must have to keep fraud out of our election so it can’t be stolen.”

Mr Whatley, who has been serving as RNC general counsel, has publicly backed Trump’s false claims that there was “massive fraud” in the 2020 presidential election won by Democrat Joe Biden, Mr Trump’s likely opponent in November.

Amy Carnevale, chair of the Massachusetts Republican Party, told AFP the election of the new RNC leadership “marks the shift from the primary campaign to the general election.” “Starting today, the focus of the Republican National Committee and the Republican Party more generally will really be on defeating Joe Biden,” Carnevale said.

Mr Whatley replaces Ronna McDaniel as RNC chief.

Ms McDaniel, a niece of Utah Senator Mitt Romney, was chosen by Trump to head the body in 2016, but their relationship soured following a string of Republican election losses and poor fundraising numbers.

Lara Trump, a 41-year-old former television producer, married Eric Trump in 2014 and was an active participant in her father-in-law’s 2016 and 2020 White House campaigns.

She has also displayed political aspirations of her own. She briefly considered running for a US Senate seat in her home state of North Carolina in 2021 before deciding against it.

Mr Trump surrounded himself with family members at his Trump Organization real estate business and also named relatives to prominent positions in the White House.

His daughter Ivanka and son-in-law Jared Kushner served as senior advisors during his presidency.