A federal appeals court in New York on Friday denied a request by the Justice Department and attorneys for President Donald Trump to delay oral arguments scheduled for next week in Trump’s appeal of his $83 million defamation case.
Trump and the DOJ had asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the delay so they could appeal an earlier ruling the court had made in the case.
Trump is appealing a 2024 verdict ordering him to pay former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll $83 million for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her accusation that he sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied all allegations.
On Wednesday, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s attempt to have the government substitute for him as a party in the case — leading his attorneys to argue that they should be allowed to appeal before oral arguments take place next week.
“The United States and President Trump are entitled to immediate review of the panel’s erroneous Westfall Act decision by this Court en banc and, if necessary, by the Supreme Court,” a joint filing from Trump and the Justice Department said Friday.
President Donald Trump walks out to talk to reporters after signing a trade agreement with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the G7 Leaders’ Summit, June 16, 2025 in Kananaskis, Alberta.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
DOJ lawyers say that since some of Trump’s alleged conduct in the case fell within the scope of his role as president, the Justice Department should be able to defend him in court.
“The Attorney General certified that President Trump was acting within the scope of his federal office or employment at the time of his 2017 statements, made from the White House, out of which Plaintiff-Appellee’s claims arose. As a result, the United States should have been substituted as a defendant in place of President Trump,” they argued in Friday’s filing, before the court rejected their request.
The oral arguments will take place as scheduled on June 24.
The 2nd Circuit last week upheld a separate, $5 million damage award to Carroll that Trump must pay.
