A New York federal judge rejected former President Trump’s motion to stay his defamation case with author E. Jean Carroll on Friday pending his appeal of the court’s decision to deny his defense of presidential immunity. The case is being overseen by Judge Lewis Kaplan in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Kaplan found that Trump did not meet his burden of demonstrating that a delay of the case was necessary. Kaplan acknowledged that a party moving for a stay must demonstrate: (1) a strong showing they are likely to succeed on the merits, (2) whether they will be irreparably injured absent a stay, (3) whether a stay will substantially injure the parties interested in the proceeding and (4) where the public interest lies. Kaplan found that “all four factors weigh against Mr. Trump’s request to stay this case.” Additionally, Kaplan noted that his appeal of the court’s presidential immunity decision is “frivolous.”
This decision comes from one of the two lawsuits involving Trump and Carroll. The Friday decision stems from the case involving Carroll’s defamation lawsuit based on Trump’s June 2019 accusation that Carroll lied about her sexual assault claim against him to increase her book sales. She claims Trump’s statements were defamatory and caused her professional and reputational harm as well as emotional pain and suffering. The court rejected Trump’s presidential immunity defense, ruling that the defense was waived and also lacked merit. The trial is currently set for January 2024.
The other case involved a sexual battery claim under New York’s Adult Survivors Act and a separate defamation claim. The act allows survivors of sexual assault or abuse who were 18 years or older at the time to file a civil lawsuit against their abuser past the state’s statute of limitations. Under the act, civil actions previously barred by the statute of limitations are now revived. Survivors now have a one-year window to file the allowed civil actions for cases of sexual assault for which they previously could not file suit past the time limitation placed on the crime. In this case, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and for defaming her by branding her a liar, assessing the damages at $5 million.
