Donald Trump filed a new motion Tuesday in a New York-based federal appeals court and said he is preparing another Supreme Court petition in one of the E. Jean Carroll cases he lost. The filing asks the appeals court to pause its latest ruling while he presses ahead with a challenge that will again put presidential immunity before the justices.
Trump said he needs the pause because, without it, he may immediately be required to bear the burdens of proceedings to execute on the $83.3 million judgment. Carroll does not oppose the motion. In Tuesday’s filing, Trump said the coming petition will raise at least two issues, including whether the President’s absolute immunity from civil claims based on official acts can be waived at all.
The new petition would be the second Carroll case headed toward the Supreme Court. Trump already has a petition pending for months in the separate case in which Carroll won $83.3 million in defamation damages. The new filing makes clear that he is trying to keep both fights alive at once, one by seeking a halt in the appeals court and the other by asking the Supreme Court to step in.
The immunity argument leans on the Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling in Trump v. United States, which addressed criminal immunity. The Carroll cases are civil, but Trump argues that the decision still helps him in the $83.3 million case because the statements at issue were made while he was president during his first term. That is the legal bridge he is trying to build between a criminal-immunity ruling and civil judgments that have already gone against him.
Trump is also still waiting on the high court in the other Carroll case, where a New York City jury awarded $5 million in damages in 2023 after finding that he sexually abused Carroll in 1996 and defamed her in 2022. He says the trial judge wrongly admitted evidence against him, including the Access Hollywood tape, which included Trump bragging about grabbing women by their genitals.
That petition has been pending for months, and the court has repeatedly rescheduled consideration of it. The next chance for the justices to act is their conference on May 14. If any new appeals are granted review this term, they would be argued in the following term, which begins in October. It takes four justices to grant review of a petition.
Trump’s latest move means the court will soon have two Carroll cases on or near its docket, both tied to his presidency and both testing how far the Supreme Court is willing to carry its immunity ruling beyond criminal prosecutions. If the justices take either case, the fight over the reach of presidential protection will move from the lower courts into a new term with Trump still trying to stop the judgments from taking hold.