NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump will not be required to pay an $83 million defamation award to longtime advice columnist E. Jean Carroll until the U.S. Supreme Court has an opportunity to review the case or reject an appeal, according to a court entry on Tuesday.
Court Allows Delay with Bond Requirement
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted a request from one of Trump's lawyers to postpone the payment, though it stipulated that Trump must post a $7.4 million bond to cover any additional interest costs. This condition was requested by Carroll's attorney.
Late last month, the appeals court refused Trump's request for a rare en banc hearing of the full 2nd Circuit to challenge a three-judge panel's affirmation of the January 2024 verdict. Following that decision, Trump attorney Justin D. Smith asked the 2nd Circuit to stay the effect of its ruling, allowing Trump to avoid paying the judgment before the Supreme Court considers an appeal.
Smith argued last week that there was a "fair prospect" the Supreme Court would rule in Trump's favor. Trump has consistently denied Carroll's allegations, first made public in 2019, that he sexually attacked her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in spring 1996, calling them a "made up scam."
Details of the Case
The $83 million award to Carroll, now 82, came from a jury that heard Trump's brief testimony and observed his animated behavior over several days. In upholding the verdict, a 2nd Circuit panel wrote in September that Trump continued his attacks against Carroll for at least five years, making them "more extreme and frequent as the trial approached."
"He also continued these same attacks during the trial itself," the appeals court noted. "In one such statement, issued two days into the trial, Trump proclaimed that he would continue to defame Carroll 'a thousand times.'"
The jury had been instructed to accept the findings of a previous jury that in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in the department store and then defamed her after she published her account in a 2019 memoir.
Trump's Legal Challenges
Trump is contesting the $83 million award on multiple grounds, including asserting "absolute immunity" for comments he made while president. He has disavowed knowing Carroll and attacked her motivations, claiming they were politically driven or stemmed from a desire to promote her memoir.
