Former President Donald Trump was recently warned against using his 2024 campaign funds to pay E. Jean Carroll, after being ordered to pay the former columnist stemming from a defamation lawsuit.
On Monday, Dave Aronberg, the state attorney in Florida's Palm Beach County, appeared on MSNBC's Morning Joe and spoke about the recent jury ruling in New York, which ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million for defamatory statements he made about her in 2019.
"He's got to post a bond just to appeal within 30 days of the judgment. So E. Jean Carroll will get her money at some point," Aronberg said. "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."
Trump was previously ordered to pay Carroll $5 million after he was found liable for sexually assaulting the former Elle columnist in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump repeatedly denied the allegations, bashed Carroll and said she wasn't his "type," prompting the second lawsuit she brought against the former president.
Former President Donald Trump at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 27, 2024. Trump has been warned about using campaign funds to pay E. Jean Carroll. Former President Donald Trump at a rally in Las Vegas, Nevada, on January 27, 2024. Trump has been warned about using campaign funds to pay E. Jean Carroll. PATRICK T. FALLON/AFP/Getty Images
In a statement to Newsweek, Aronberg said: "If Trump wants his supporters to pay his debt to E. Jean Carroll, he'll have to disclose it. He won't be able to claim it's for his re-election or any other cause, and then divert it to pay off this $83.3 million judgment. Otherwise, he could be charged with fraud like Steve Bannon, who diverted money from the 'We Build the Wall' campaign."
Newsweek reached out to Trump's spokesperson via email for comment.
Responding to the recent ruling, Trump said on Truth Social: "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," the former president added.
While speaking with CBS Mornings this week about the ruling, Carroll said she believes the jury said "enough."
"Enough saying horrible, slimy, terrible things about me," Carroll said.
Carroll also discussed the case on CNN's This Morning where she said that Trump had "zero" power during the hearings.
"It's just the people around him that give him power. It's the emperor without clothes," she said. "The courtroom was not a courtroom for him, it was a campaign stop, that was clear. We had two different objectives. Ours was to win a case, his was to win voters. We'll see how that plays out."
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, also spoke to CBS Mornings and said that Trump's behavior in court, such as his decision to leave the courtroom, may have played a role in the ruling.
"During the trial, he continued to post nasty, defamatory things about E. Jean on Truth Social, he did videos, he did press conferences, and we played that all for the jury. And we said, 'He can't respect our system. There was a verdict by a jury that said he can't do this anymore, and he keeps doing it,'" Kaplan said.