E. Jean Carroll spent years trying to destroy Donald Trump in court.
Now the court just told her to wait.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has blocked Carroll from collecting her $83.3 million defamation judgment until the Supreme Court decides whether to hear Trump's appeal.
Trump Wins the Delay Carroll Fought to Prevent
Carroll's team fought the stay. They failed.
The appeals court sided with Trump attorney Justin D. Smith, who argued there was "at least a fair prospect" the Supreme Court would reverse the panel's ruling.
Smith also flagged something Carroll's lawyers probably hoped nobody would notice.
Carroll has said publicly she plans to give the money away the moment she gets it – meaning if the Supreme Court later reverses the verdict, Trump would have no way to recover a dollar.
That argument landed.
To cover interest accruing during the delay, the court required Trump to post a $7.4 million bond – a condition Carroll's attorneys had requested.
The court had already rejected Trump's request for a full 2nd Circuit en banc review, and three judges dissented from that refusal – giving Smith the ammunition he needed to argue the Supreme Court should look at the case.
The Panel That Upheld the Verdict and What It Actually Ruled
Trump is challenging the $83.3 million award on two main grounds.
First, presidential immunity: that his public statements denying Carroll's claims – made while he was president – are protected official conduct under the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling in Trump v. United States.
Second, the Westfall Act: the DOJ argued the federal government should be substituted as defendant, which would end the case immediately since the government cannot be sued for defamation.
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The 2nd Circuit rejected both.
The three-judge panel – Judges Denny Chin, Sarah Merriam, and Myrna Pérez Kahn – 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."
They noted one statement Trump issued two days into trial – that he would continue to defame Carroll "a thousand times."
Two of those three judges are Biden appointees.
Keep that in mind when weighing their outrage.
What the Supreme Court Will Actually Decide
The case dates to Carroll's 2019 memoir, in which she alleged Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996.
A jury in May 2023 awarded Carroll $5 million after finding Trump sexually abused her and defamed her when she went public.
The $83.3 million verdict came from a second trial in January 2024 focused entirely on damages from Trump's ongoing denials while in office.
Now both the immunity question and the Westfall Act substitution are headed to the Supreme Court – and either one, if resolved in Trump's favor, ends the case.
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Democrats spent Trump's first term turning the legal system into a weapon.
Mueller. Impeachments. Manhattan DA. New York AG. Carroll. Classified documents.
Every case was supposed to finish him. None did.
The one verdict that actually produced a dollar figure is now frozen, and the Supreme Court – the same court Chuck Schumer stood on the steps of in 2020 and warned would "pay the price" for ruling the wrong way – is the last stop.
Carroll's lawyers are already spinning the bond requirement as a consolation prize.
It isn't.
A $7.4 million bond on an $83.3 million judgment means a federal appeals court agreed there's a real chance the whole thing gets thrown out.
That's not a delay.
That's a warning shot.
Sources:
- Associated Press, "Appeals Court Temporarily Halts Trump Defamation Payment," Newsmax, May 12, 2026.
- NBC News, "Trump Asks Appeals Court to Pause Ruling in E. Jean Carroll Case," May 6, 2026.
- Law Commentary, "2nd Circuit Upholds $83.3M Defamation Award to E. Jean Carroll," September 9, 2025.
- Supreme Court of the United States, Trump v. United States, 603 U.S. ___ (2024).
