Judge denies Trump request for more time to pay damages in Carroll defamation case

A federal judge on Thursday rejected Donald Trump’s request for three extra days to pay damages in writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case against the former president.

The payment’s scheduled due date is Monday. Trump was ordered to pay $83.3 million, and with interest the full amount will be $91.6 million.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the trial, said Trump has had plenty of time to arrange for payment in the weeks since a jury in January found him liable for defamation by denying that he sexually abused Carroll in the 90s in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan.

“Mr. Trump’s current situation is a result of his own dilatory actions,” Kaplan wrote in his order. “He has had since January 26 to organize his finances with the knowledge that he might need to bond this judgment.”

Trump attorneys Alina Habba and John Sauer did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday night.

On Wednesday, Habba asked Kaplan to temporarily pause enforcing the verdict until three business days after the court rules on a longer-term stay in an effort to get ahead of Monday’s deadline finalizing the judgment.

Trump last month sought a longer pause in enforcement of the verdict, pending resolution of his post-trial motions. Kaplan has yet to rule on that request.

Trump’s attorneys on Tuesday filed for a new trial in the case and requested that Kaplan substantially reduce the judgment. They contended that the jury’s compensatory and punitive awards were out of proportion, and argued that the $11 million award for reputational harm “is disproportionately high” compared to awards in similar cases.