Appeals court pauses Trump’s $83 million payment to E. Jean Carroll pending Supreme Court action
A federal appeals court ruled this week that President Donald Trump does not need to pay an $83 million defamation settlement to writer E. Jean Carroll until the Supreme Court reviews the case or decides to dismiss it.
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The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York issued the order Monday after Trump asked it to stay its earlier ruling, denying him the opportunity to challenge the defamation award in the full appeals court.
The court granted Trump’s request to stay that decision, citing no objection from Carroll as long as Trump agreed to increase bail by $7.46 million to account for interest that would accrue on his sentence during further legal proceedings expected to extend to the Supreme Court.
“We are pleased that the Second Circuit conditioned President Trump’s stay on bail of nearly $100 million,” Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan told NBC News in a statement, citing the earlier increase Trump already announced to bring the amount owed to more than $91 million before Monday’s order.
Representatives for Trump did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the appeals court’s ruling Tuesday evening.
Trump’s lawyers are seeking to invoke federal law to replace him as a defendant and have the U.S. government take his place. If successful, the ruling would essentially overturn Carroll’s case since the federal government cannot be sued for defamation. The appeals court last month denied a request for a hearing on that argument.
A jury sided with Carroll in 2024, agreeing with her claims that Trump defamed her when he repeatedly denied sexually assaulting her in a dressing room in the 1990s.
Trump is trying to take the case to the Supreme Court after already asking it to consider his appeal in another $5 million defamation suit against him that Carroll won.
