The Chubb Insurance company, which issued the $91.6 million surety bond that Donald Trump posted as he appeals the verdict in his E. Jean Carroll defamation suit, is led by CEO Evan Greenberg.
(NOTE: The amount reflects a customary 11% cushion over the $83.3 million Carroll was awarded.)
Greenberg, who was appointed by then-President Trump in 2018 to a four year term as a Member of the Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations, received blowback about the issuance in such a controversial, divisive case — so much so that the CEO sought to clear the air in a letter addressed to the company’s investors and stakeholders.
Greenberg defended providing Trump with the money while describing his company’s surety bond business as part of the “plumbing” of the American justice system, pipework that allows justice to flow up to appeals courts.
“When Chubb issues an appeal bond, it isn’t making judgments about the claims, even when the claims involve reprehensible conduct,” Greenberg wrote. “As a surety, we don’t take sides, it would be wrong for us to do so, and we are in no way supporting the defendant.”
Elsewhere Greenberg writes that the bond provides the plaintiff, not the defendant, with “peace of mind that the payment is certain if the judgment is upheld.” Therefore, he asserts, the “plaintiff is the beneficiary of the bond.” Chubb is protecting E. Jean Carroll’s interests, not Trump’s, by Greenberg calculation.
“I realize how polarizing and emotional this case and the defendant are and how easy it would be for Chubb to just say no,” Greenberg revealed. “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 personal feelings aside.”
Chubb again left its personal feelings aside — and its checkbook, too — when Trump came knocking a second time, looking for a bond worth $450 million while he appeals his civil fraud trial in New York. Trump’s lawyers called the challenge of raising a collateralized bond for that amount “insurmountable,” saying they had gone to 30 insurance companies and received no offers.
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