Donald Trump has run out of excuses. A federal judge on Tuesday flatly rejected his latest attempt to postpone paying $5.8 million owed to E. Jean Carroll, the magazine columnist a jury found he sexually abused and then defamed.
US District Judge Lewis Kaplan's refusal came in a single-sentence order issued on July 4, cutting short Trump's argument that his new legal team needed extra time to handle the case after his former lead counsel, Justin Smith, was confirmed to the federal bench in June.
Trump's attorneys had asked for a continuance, contending that Smith's replacement, Josh Halpern, required additional time to get up to speed on the facts and legal record. Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, demolished the claim, pointing out that Trump had nominated Smith to the court of appeals over five months before his confirmation, leaving ample opportunity to bring in new counsel.
The ruling represents another setback for Trump following the US Supreme Court's earlier rejection of his demand to review the jury's 2023 verdict that awarded Carroll the $5.8 million in the defamation case.
Judge Kaplan's terse dismissal of the delay request means Trump now faces a Tuesday deadline to release the funds from an escrow account or file additional motions explaining why he will not. The judge offered no written opinion, opting instead for what court records call a text-only docket entry.
Carroll's legal team sees Trump's persistence in seeking postponements as part of a larger strategy to stall both judgments against him. The original 2023 case centered on Trump's 1996 sexual abuse of Carroll and his subsequent defamation of her public account of the attack in 2019. A separate 2024 jury verdict awarded Carroll $83.3 million for additional defamatory statements Trump made during his first presidency.
That second case introduces questions of presidential immunity that could complicate Trump's legal exposure. Carroll's lawyers have warned that Trump may attempt to consolidate the two cases before an appeals court, potentially voiding both judgments if he succeeds in claiming executive privilege protection for his statements.
Before his confirmation, Smith signaled to the Supreme Court that Trump would appeal the larger $83.3 million award and suggested the two cases be considered together, a move that alarmed Carroll's legal team as a possible pathway to erasing both verdicts.
Judge Kaplan has drawn Trump's ire throughout the litigation. After the initial jury award in 2023, Trump posted an angry statement to Truth Social attacking the judge as a "Trump-hating, Clinton-appointed" jurist who bent the proceedings against him.
Author James Rodriguez: "Trump's resort to procedural delays while facing a hard Tuesday deadline suggests his legal arsenal is nearly exhausted on this front."
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