The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit granted President Donald Trump’s request for a stay on an order to pay $83 million to E. Jean Carroll in her defamation case until the Supreme Court decides if it will take up the case.
In January 2024, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83 million.
The breakdown is $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in 1996 at the Bergdorf Goodman across from Trump Tower.
The jury had to determine how much Trump owed Carroll since he “was already found liable for sexually abusing Carroll, lying about it and knowing that he was lying when he denied her allegations.”
Trump appealed the verdict, arguing that the Westfall Act shielded him since “he acted in his official capacity when making the defamatory comments.”
Terrance explained the Act:
The Westfall Act provides a shield for federal employees against civil actions when acting in an official capacity. The Westfall Act allows for the U.S. to be substituted as the plaintiff in civil actions against the federal employee when the federal employee’s conduct at issue occurred in the employee’s official capacity.Substitution can occur when the U.S. Attorney General certifies that the conduct occurred in an official capacity or when the federal employee files a motion arguing that the conduct occurred in an official capacity. In either case, the court must consider whether substitution is appropriate.
But the Second Circuit ruled “that the Westfall Act barred the substitution as untimely, that Trump and the federal government waived their right to move for substitution, and that the principles of equity barred the substitution.”
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