A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit recently denied a motion to stay the defamation lawsuit against former US President Donald Trump, put forward by author E. Jean Carroll. This ruling comes while the US Supreme Court ponders over his claim of immunity, and disregards Trump’s additional request to delay the case in order to consider other options in appellate court. In August, Trump had faced a similar defeat when a US federal judge dismissed the same motion.
The Second Circuit’s single-page order greenlights the scheduled trial to proceed. It is worth noting that this is the second civil cases commenced by Carroll against the former President. A previous ruling found Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll, resulting in a settlement of $5 million awarded to the author. Both lawsuits revolved around Carroll’s allegations accusing Trump of sexually assaulting her in a New York department store during the mid-1990s. The defamation lawsuit came into being after Carroll contended that Trump’s denial of the incident damaged her reputation.
Trump’s attorney, Michael Madaio, had appealed for a 90-day deferment of the trial that was planned for January 2024. According to Madaio, the continuation of the case contravenes Trump’s constitutional rights. Particularly, Madaio noted that the refusal of the requested stay would flout a longstanding rule that strips the lower courts of jurisdiction during the pending period of an immunity-related appeal.
Nevertheless, counterarguments from Carroll’s legal team cite an “undue and highly prejudicial delay” in raising the immunity defense. They also highlighted erroneous interpretations of the landmark case Nixon v. Fitzgerald, wherein the Supreme Court granted Nixon immunity for actions committed in his capacity as the President. It should be noted, this immunity claim contrasts significantly with Trump’s situation.
Earlier in the month, an initial defeat was dealt to Trump’s immunity defense by a panel of judges from the Second Circuit. Specifically, the panel declared it was too late for Trump to assert this defense as he failed to invoke it during the initial procedures initiated by Carroll in 2019.
The defamation trial is set to commence on January 16, 2024. For more details, the full coverage of the case can be found here.