New York - Donald Trump continues trying to use every possible legal avenue to prevent E. Jean Carroll from receiving the awarded $83 million. His attorneys have filed a request with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York seeking to temporarily block the payout. The move is tied to plans to eventually bring the case before the Supreme Court. Justin D. Smith, one of Trump’s lawyers, argues in the filing, which we have obtained, that Trump would suffer “irreparable harm” if Carroll were to receive the money now. The reasoning is remarkable. Carroll has publicly stated that she intends to donate a large portion of the money. If the Supreme Court were later to overturn the verdict, Trump might not be able to recover the funds.
Read also our article: Trump Fails in Appeals Court - $83 Million Judgment to E. Jean Carroll Upheld
The case has now dragged on for years. Back in May 2023, a jury ordered Trump to pay $5 million. Jurors concluded at the time that Trump sexually abused E. Jean Carroll in 1996 inside the dressing room of a luxury department store in Manhattan and later publicly defamed her. In January 2024, another jury awarded Carroll an additional $83 million in damages over further defamatory statements made by Trump.
Trump continues to completely deny the allegations. To this day, he claims he never knew Carroll and regularly describes her accusations as a politically motivated attack and an attempt to market her book.
What is particularly interesting, however, is the strategy behind the new filing. Trump is once again attempting to invoke sweeping presidential immunity protections. His attorneys argue that statements Trump made during his presidency could generally fall under the protection of presidential immunity. That is exactly the argument his legal team now hopes to bring before the Supreme Court. The filing specifically references the dissent of three appellate judges. They criticized the full court for refusing to comprehensively review the case again. Trump’s attorneys now view that dissent as a real opportunity that the Supreme Court could ultimately reject the lower court rulings.
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan declined public comment. However, Carroll’s legal team apparently is not directly opposing the request. Their only condition is reportedly that Trump increase the posted bond by an additional $7.4 million in order to secure possible interest while the case moves through a potential Supreme Court process.
The case is therefore increasingly becoming more than just a single civil lawsuit. If the Supreme Court ultimately agrees to hear the dispute, the question could once again return to the forefront of how far presidential immunity actually extends - even when statements are made outside the scope of traditional government business.
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