Trump seeks to halt payment to E. Jean Carroll in hope of eventual Supreme Court winTrump insists he has absolute immunity from a lawsuit stemming from statements he made while he was US president2-MIN READ2-MIN0ListenPublished: 7:46am, 7 May 2026US President Donald Trump’s lawyer, hoping for an eventual Supreme Court victory, has asked a federal appeal court in New York to temporarily block a long-time columnist from collecting a US$83 million defamation award.The lawyer, Justin D. Smith, told the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in a filing on Tuesday to stay its decision supporting the award so that Trump will not have to pay writer E. Jean Carroll while he appeals to the high court.A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the payout in January 2024. Another jury in May 2023 awarded Carroll US$5 million after concluding Trump sexually abused her in a Manhattan luxury department store dressing room in 1996 and then defamed her after she published her account of it in 2019.Select VoiceSelect Speed0.8x0.9x1.0x1.1x1.2x1.5x1.75x00:0000:001.00x
SRCSouth China Morning Post
LANGEN
LEANCenter-Right
WORDS164
ENT7
WED · 2026-05-06 · 23:46 GMTBRIEF NSR-2026-0507-74272
NSR-2026-0507-74272News Report·EN·Legal & Judicial
Trump seeks to halt payment to E. Jean Carroll in hope of eventual Supreme Court win
Donald Trump's legal team has requested a federal appeals court in New York to temporarily halt the payment of an $83 million defamation award to E. Jean Carroll.
Associated PressSouth China Morning PostFiled 2026-05-06 · 23:46 GMTLean · Center-RightRead · 1 min
South China Morning PostFIG 01
Reading time
1min
Word count
164words
Sources cited
1cited
Entities identified
7entities
Quality score
100%
§ 01
Briefing Summary
AI-generatedNEWSAR · AI
Donald Trump's legal team has requested a federal appeals court in New York to temporarily halt the payment of an $83 million defamation award to E. Jean Carroll. This move is intended to prevent Trump from having to pay the columnist while he pursues an appeal to the Supreme Court. Trump's lawyers are arguing for absolute presidential immunity regarding statements made during his presidency. A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the $83 million in January 2024, following a previous $5 million award in May 2023. That earlier judgment found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation related to an incident in 1996 and Carroll's subsequent publication of her account.
Confidence 0.90Sources 1Claims 4Entities 7
§ 02
Article analysis
Model · rule-basedFraming
Legal & Judicial
Political Strategy
Tone
Measured
AI-assessed
CalmNeutralAlarmist
Factuality
0.90 / 1.00
Factual
LowHigh
Sources cited
1
Limited
FewMany
§ 03
Key claims
4 extracted01
A previous jury awarded Carroll $5 million in May 2023, concluding Trump sexually abused her and defamed her.
factual
Confidence
1.00
02
A jury awarded Carroll $83 million in January 2024 for defamation.
factual
Confidence
1.00
03
The request aims to prevent Trump from paying Carroll while he appeals to the Supreme Court.
factual
Confidence
1.00
04
Trump's lawyer asked a federal appeals court to temporarily block the $83 million defamation award to E. Jean Carroll.
factualJustin D. Smith (Trump's lawyer)
Confidence
1.00
§ 04
Full report
1 min read · 164 words§ 05
Entities
7 identifiedKey playerOppositionContextPositiveNeutralNegative
People3
Organizations2
§ 06
Keywords & salience
8 termse. jean carroll
1.00
supreme court
0.90
defamation award
0.90
absolute immunity
0.80
federal appeal court
0.70
us president
0.60
sexual abuse
0.50
legal appeal
0.40
§ 07
Topic connections
Interactive graph Network visualization showing 49 related topics
View Full Graph Person Organization Location Event|Click node to navigate|Edge numbers = shared articles