Trump's Legal Woes Continue: Defamation Suit, Criminal Trial Delay, and Civil Judgment - 2024-03-12

For anyone but Donald J. Trump, Monday’s legal docket would have induced dizziness.

In the morning, a lawyer for the writer E. Jean Carroll suggested she might sue Mr. Trump for defamation for a third time.

By lunch, it emerged that Mr. Trump’s lawyers had mounted a last-ditch effort to delay his upcoming criminal trial in Manhattan.

And by evening, the New York attorney general asked an appeals court to maintain a $454 million judgment against Mr. Trump in yet another case.

It was a flurry of legal activity that, in a single day, demonstrated the remarkable breadth of Mr. Trump’s legal entanglements.

He is not only standing trial this month on criminal charges — making him the first former American president to face prosecution — but is also fighting three other criminal cases and several civil lawsuits, all at a time when he is poised to lock up the Republican presidential nomination. Even for a man who is no stranger to legal woes, this is an unparalleled situation.

Ms. Carroll’s lawyer raised the prospect of a new lawsuit after Mr. Trump in recent days repeatedly lashed out at her, using the same kind of disparaging language that led to an $83.3 million judgment against him in January.

Trump attorneys Alina Habba and John Sauer asked New York Judge Lewis Kaplan to extend the stay of the ruling, which is set to expire on Monday.

Trump will have to pay Carroll or put up $91 million in cash bond needed to appeal the ruling.

In New York, a defendant must pay a cash bond of 110% of the judgment to appeal the ruling of a civil case.

E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan rejected that argument in a letter to the judge.

“Trump offers no alternative means other than his own unsubstantiated say so that he will have $83.3 million available when Carroll prevails on appeal,” the attorney wrote.

Judge Kaplan issued an order on Monday stating that a ruling on the stay request will be “rendered as promptly as is reasonably possible.”

“Without implying what that decision will be or when it will be made, however, it will not come today,” he wrote.