Donald Trump may seek to avoid paying millions of dollars awarded by a jury following his case with E. Jean Carroll, according to the former president’s biographer, Tim O’Brien.
While appearing on MSNBC over the weekend, O’Brien spoke about the recent ruling in the Carroll case in which Trump was found liable of defamation ordered to pay $83.3 million.
“I think he actually definitely does have the cash,” O’Brien said. “Will he willingly part with it again? I think not.
“In both cases, you are going to have to see the courts come after him and attack some of his assets. Most of Donald Trump’s wealth is tied up in a handful of urban skyscrapers whose value has been diminished by the COVID pandemic and this flight from urban centers. A lot of it is in golf courses. None of it is, as they say in the trade, ‘very liquid.'”
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Last month, a jury found Trump liable of defamation against Carroll, a former Elle columnist, for comments he made in 2019, denying allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s.
The ruling came shortly after Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $5 million when he was found liable of sexual assault.
Trump has continued to deny any wrongdoing in the case and said that he plans to appeal the most recent ruling.
“Absolutely ridiculous! I fully disagree with both verdicts, and will be appealing this whole Biden Directed Witch Hunt focused on me and the Republican Party…Our Legal System is out of control, and being used as a Political Weapon,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social last month. “They have taken away all First Amendment Rights.”
During an interview with former U.S. Attorney Joyce Vance this month, O’Brien spoke further about Trump’s required payments to Carroll saying: “The financial judgments absolutely bother him. Trump sees his life, himself, his relationships and the world around him through the lens of money. It animates everything he does.”
O’Brien added that he believes the case involving Carroll may “bother” Trump more than his other cases, such as the two federal indictments by Special Counsel Jack Smith.
“They also bother him currently more than the voting fraud case in Georgia. And that’s because massive amounts of money aren’t in play in those cases—just possible prison time,” O’Brien told Vance.
Dave Aronberg, the state attorney in Florida’s Palm Beach County, previously warned Trump against using campaign funds from paying Carroll, saying, “He can try to get money from his supporters, but he’s got to tell them what it’s for…He can’t say, ‘Help me with my re-election fund’ and then divert the money to E. Jean Carroll. That would be a crime.”
Newsweek reached out to Trump’s spokesperson via email for comment.
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.