(WASHINGTON) — The chairman and chief executive of the insurance company that guaranteed former President Donald Trump’s $92 million bond in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case said in a letter Wednesday that the company’s participation “has nothing to do with the underlying merits or with favoring any of the parties in the case.”
He also said the bond is “fully collateralized,” though the letter did not say how much cash or what assets Trump used as collateral.
Chubb CEO Evan Greenberg sent the letter to any customer, agent, broker or investor who inquired about the bond.
“As the surety, we don’t take sides, it would be wrong for us to do so and we are in no way supporting the defendant. We are supporting and are part of the justice system plumbing included in this case,” the letter said. “When Chubb issues an appeal bond, it isn’t making judgments about the claims, even when the claims involve alleged reprehensible conduct.”
“I fully realize how polarizing and emotional this case and the defendant are and how easy it would be for Chubb to just say no. However, we support the rule of law and our role in it. We considered this the right thing to do and we frankly left our own personal feelings aside,” the letter said.
Chubb itself also issued two statements, one of which clarified Greenberg’s appointment to a trade advisory panel by then-President Trump.
“Evan Greenberg was appointed to the advisory committee in 2018, along with: James P. Hoffa (International Brotherhood of Teamsters), Harold McGraw III, C. Fred Bergsten (Peterson Institute of International Economics) and Timothy P. Smucker of Ohio. He served on the committee under both the Trump and Biden administrations until March 2023,” the statement said.
Trump in January was ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages, plus interest, to Carroll, a former Elle magazine columnist, for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegation that he sexually abused her in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s. Trump, who said Carroll was “totally lying” and that she was “not my type,” has denied all wrongdoing.
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