MANHATTAN (CN) — The Second Circuit on Thursday declined to postpone former president Donald Trump’s civil defamation trial in Manhattan federal court next month.
Trump, the apparent front-runner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, faces multiple criminal trials as he campaigns to return to the Oval Office, but the first trial he will face in the election year will be the second civil trial over his denials he sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll in a fitting room at New York City’s famed Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996.
The trial, the second of Carroll’s cases against Trump to go to trial, will commence as scheduled on Jan. 16.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan has already found Trump liable on Carroll’s defamation claims in pretrial summary judgment, so the jury trial in the Southern District of New York will be to determine how much Trump owes her in damages.
Judge Kaplan, a Bill Clinton appointee, previously denied Trump’s motion for summary judgment in federal court and rejected his request to add presidential immunity as a defense.
In a single-page ruling issued Thursday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals refused to squeeze the brakes on Carroll’s January trial date, denying Trump’s motions for stays of proceedings pending an appeal to the Supreme Court over the purported presidential immunity protections.
Represented by Bedminster, New Jersey, attorney Michael Madaio, Trump had asked the Second Circuit to issue a stay of proceedings in the lower court case, delaying the January 2024 trial date, while he considered appealing to the Supreme Court over his repeatedly rebuffed claims of presidential immunity.
"The requested stays are necessary and appropriate to give President Trump an opportunity to fully litigate his entitlement to present an immunity defense in the underlying proceedings, including pursuing the appeal in the Supreme Court if necessary," Madaio argued in the motion. "Forcing President Trump to stand trial absent a final determination as to whether his presidential immunity defense is viable would be the 'quintessential form of prejudice' and would deprive the immunity of its intended effect."
This month, the circuit struck down Trump’s appeal by finding he waived the presidential immunity defense because he did not immediately invoke it when Carroll initially sued him. Carroll claimed Trump defamed her by saying she fabricated her account of the sexual assault.
In a brief responding to Trump's motion for a stay, Carroll’s lawyers argued they’ve been unfairly prejudiced by Trump’s "gamesmanship at every stage of this case."
Trump has deployed the same immunity defense and stalling strategy in his criminal case in D.C. federal court on charges of trying to subvert the 2020 election.
This month, special counsel Jack Smith asked the Supreme Court to weigh in, with the hope that the justices' intervention would prevent a delay to Trump's Washington trial, set to begin in March 2024. But the high court refused to take on a speedy review without the appellate intermediary.
Trump’s defense relies on the Supreme Court’s ruling in Nixon v. Fitzgerald, where the high court said Nixon had immunity from civil suits related to his official duties. Trump views Fitzgerald as giving absolute immunity from any crimes — extending that liability to criminal charges.
Representatives for Trump and Carroll did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday afternoon.
Trump, the first former U.S. president to be indicted, faces 91 criminal counts across four state and federal jurisdictions — in Georgia, Florida, New York, and the District of Columbia — even as he enjoys front-runner standing in 2024 Republican presidential primary polling.
If Trump does take back the presidency, he could order his newly appointed attorney general to throw out any federal charges or pardon himself of any federal convictions.
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