Trump has endured witch hunts like no other. And he needs some relief.
Now President Trump just asked a federal court for a massive favor.
A Late-Night Filing With Major Implications
Trump’s legal team filed with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit late Tuesday, formally requesting a stay of the $83.3 million defamation judgment in E. Jean Carroll’s case while the president seeks Supreme Court review on grounds that include presidential immunity and the Westfall Act.
The Westfall Act, a federal law designed to protect government employees from personal lawsuits for actions taken in the course of their official duties, has been a central legal argument for Trump’s team since Carroll originally filed her defamation suit in November 2019 — during Trump’s first term. The judgment itself was handed down in May 2023, as Trump was already navigating a cascade of legal actions launched under the Biden administration.
Carroll’s legal team has signaled they will not oppose the stay, provided Trump increases the bond by approximately $7.46 million to cover post-judgment interest accrued on the original verdict while the appeal has been pending.
“Carroll does not oppose this motion,” Trump’s presidential attorney Justin Smith wrote in the 24-page filing.
The Legal Argument: Immunity, The Westfall Act, And A Dissent Worth Watching
Smith’s filing makes the case that the Supreme Court has a “reasonable probability” of taking the case and a “fair prospect” of reversing the lower courts — and points to something concrete to support that optimism. Three Second Circuit judges dissented from the court’s denial of rehearing en banc, identifying what Trump’s legal team describes as significant legal errors in how the lower court handled presidential immunity and the Westfall Act.
“Absent a stay, President Trump will suffer ongoing irreparable harm due to violation of his right to immunity from this defamation suit for his official statements as President of the United States of America,” Smith argued in the filing. He also warned that if the mandate is permitted to take effect before Supreme Court review, Carroll could begin executing on the $83.3 million judgment — creating a situation that would be difficult to unwind even if the high court later rules in Trump’s favor.
“There is a ‘fair prospect’ that the Supreme Court will reverse the Panel’s erroneous decisions that Presidential immunity and the Westfall Act were both waived,” the filing stated. “Issuing the mandate and permitting lower court proceedings to move forward during Supreme Court review of these significant questions would ‘eviscerate the immunity [the Supreme Court has] recognized,’ as well as create a likely inability to recover funds if the Supreme Court reverses, as it should.”
Why It Matters Beyond Trump
The broader legal questions at stake here extend well beyond the Carroll case and well beyond Trump personally. The Supreme Court’s landmark 2024 ruling on presidential immunity in Trump v. United States established that presidents enjoy absolute immunity for core constitutional acts and at least presumptive immunity for official acts generally. How that doctrine applies to statements made by a sitting president — including denials of accusations that arose during an active presidency — remains an open and consequential question.
If the Court takes the case, it will be asked to define the outer boundaries of presidential immunity in ways that will affect every future occupant of the Oval Office, regardless of party. The Westfall Act question is similarly significant: whether its shield extends to a president’s public statements in defense of his own conduct and reputation has never been definitively resolved by the Supreme Court.
Smith, notably, was nominated by Trump for a federal judgeship on the Eighth Circuit in early March, with Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on his nomination held in April — a detail Carroll’s legal team can be expected to raise. For now, with Carroll’s team not opposing the stay itself, the immediate question is whether the Second Circuit will grant a pause long enough to let the nation’s highest court decide whether to weigh in.
