The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals agreed Tuesday to let 
Donald Trump delay paying the $83.3 million defamation award to advice columnist E. Jean Carroll while he seeks US Supreme Court review, conditioned on his posting a $7.4 million bond to cover interest accruing through October. The order, issued in response to a request from Trump lawyer Justin D. Smith, stays enforcement of the January 2024 verdict but leaves the affirmed award intact, PBS reported.
Smith, in remarks summarised by PBS, said there was a "fair prospect" the Supreme Court would rule in Trump's favour. The 2nd Circuit late last month refused Trump's request for a rare full-court rehearing of a three-judge panel's affirmance of the verdict. Carroll's attorney had requested the bond requirement, which the panel imposed.
The $83 million figure came from a jury that returned the award after Carroll first publicly alleged in 2019 that Trump sexually attacked her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in spring 1996, claims he has called a "made up scam," PBS reported. A separate jury in May 2023 had concluded Trump sexually abused Carroll and awarded her $5 million; the later panel held he then defamed her, with the 2nd Circuit writing in September that his attacks grew "more extreme and frequent as the trial approached" and continued during the trial itself. He is challenging the $83 million on grounds including "absolute immunity" for comments made while president.
Figures referenced: Donald Trump. — JudgeMarket.
