Trump seeks Supreme Court review in Carroll defamation fight

Trump is trying to stop the Carroll defamation case from moving into collection while he makes one last run at the U.S. Supreme Court. His filing asks a court to pause the ruling that rejected his challenge to E. Jean Carroll’s $83.3 million judgment, arguing that his public denials of her allegations were made in an official presidential capacity and should be covered by immunity.

The procedural fight matters because the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined on April 29, 2026, to rehear Trump’s challenge, leaving the Supreme Court as his final appellate option. Trump is now seeking a stay of the appellate mandate, a move that would keep the judgment from becoming fully enforceable while his lawyers prepare the high court petition. If the stay is denied, Carroll may be able to begin collection efforts even as the Supreme Court considers whether to take the case.

Trump’s filing also invokes the Westfall Act, an effort to substitute the U.S. government as the defendant instead of Trump personally. The Justice Department said in a separate filing that it plans to ask the Supreme Court for permission to intervene on Trump’s behalf, a highly unusual step that could reshape the litigation if the justices allow it.

The underlying dispute traces back to Carroll’s allegation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s, an accusation Trump has repeatedly denied. A separate jury awarded Carroll $5 million in May 2023 after finding Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The later January 2024 trial produced the larger $83.3 million verdict over Trump’s public statements attacking Carroll’s account.

What remains now is narrow but consequential. The appeals court has already refused to reopen the case, and Trump’s legal team is pressing the argument that his remarks were tied to his presidency and therefore protected. The Supreme Court will decide whether that claim raises a serious constitutional question worth reviewing, or whether the filing is chiefly a last attempt to delay the financial and political consequences of a verdict that has already survived years of litigation.