Appeals Court Issues Favorable Trump Ruling In E. Jean Carroll Case
A federal appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump does not need to pay an $83 million defamation award to writer E. Jean Carroll until the Supreme Court either reviews the case or decides not to take it up.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York issued this order on Monday after Trump requested a pause on its earlier ruling that denied him the opportunity to challenge the defamation award before the full appeals court.
The court granted Trump’s request to pause the ruling, noting that there were no objections from Carroll, as long as Trump agreed to increase the bond by $7.46 million to cover the interest that will accumulate on her award during the anticipated legal proceedings, which are expected to reach the Supreme Court, reports said.
“We are pleased that the Second Circuit conditioned the stay on President Trump posting a bond of nearly $100 million,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told NBC News in a statement.
He cited Trump’s earlier increase, raising the total owed to over $91 million before Monday’s order.
Attorneys for Trump are attempting to invoke a federal law that would substitute the U.S. government in place of Trump as the defendant in the defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll.
If successful, the move could effectively end Carroll’s case because the federal government generally cannot be sued for defamation under existing law.
A federal appeals court last month declined a request to rehear arguments related to that legal strategy.
A jury ruled in favor of Carroll in 2024, finding that Trump defamed her by repeatedly denying allegations that he sexually abused her in a department store dressing room during the 1990s.
Trump is now seeking Supreme Court review after previously asking the high court to consider his appeal in a separate $5 million defamation judgment that Carroll also won against him.
Supreme Court justices were scheduled to hold a private conference on Feb. 20 to consider a slate of petitions for review, including one filed by Trump, who asked the high court to review the 2023 verdict against him in a civil lawsuit brought by Carroll.
In the petition, Trump’s attorneys described Carroll’s allegations as “facially implausible” and “politically motivated.”
They argued the accusations were “propped up” by what they called a series of indefensible evidentiary rulings that allowed Carroll’s attorneys to introduce evidence the Trump team opposed.
“President Trump has clearly and consistently denied that this supposed incident ever occurred,” Trump’s attorneys wrote.
“No physical or DNA evidence corroborates Carroll’s story,” the filing continued.
“There were no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation,” the attorneys wrote.
They also noted that Carroll waited more than 20 years to accuse Trump, doing so after he became president.
Trump’s attorneys argued the timing allowed Carroll to “maximize political injury” to Trump and “profit for herself.”
The petition further suggested Carroll’s allegations mirror the plot of a “Law & Order” episode, which the attorneys noted is one of her favorite television shows.
Trump’s legal team also objected to the admission of testimony from Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff.
Leeds alleged that Trump assaulted her on an airplane in 1979. Stoynoff claimed Trump attacked her at Mar-a-Lago in 2005.
The attorneys argued that both accounts contain credibility issues and inconsistencies.
They also objected to the admission of the 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump made lewd remarks.
Carroll, a journalist and advice columnist, sued Trump twice after publishing a book in 2019. In the book, Carroll claimed Trump raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996.
Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations and has called the case “a complete con job.”
He has also said Carroll was “not my type.”
“I don’t know this woman, have no idea who she is,” Trump wrote on Truth Social in October 2022.
Trump Admin Says It Uncovered $10 Billion Obamacare Fraud Scheme
The Trump administration says it has uncovered what it describes as a massive fraud scheme within the Affordable Care Act.
Members of Trump’s administration allege that roughly $10 billion in taxpayer money was improperly paid out between 2021 and 2024 because of weakened enrollment safeguards under former President Joe Biden.
According to a Department of Health and Human Services report, officials have already removed nearly three million fraudulent or improper Obamacare enrollments and estimate another 2.6 million questionable enrollments remain.
Administration officials say the findings are part of a broader government-wide effort to eliminate fraud, waste, and abuse across federal programs.
The report traces the alleged problems to changes made during the Biden administration that expanded enrollment opportunities while relaxing income verification and eligibility checks.
At the start of Biden’s presidency, approximately 10 million people were enrolled through the Affordable Care Act exchanges. By 2024, enrollment had surged to roughly 22 million.
Federal investigators now believe millions of those enrollments were improper, fraudulent, or created without the knowledge of the individuals involved.
“By our estimate, improper, phantom, and fraudulent enrollment peaked at 5.6 million people in 2025,” the report states.
“We estimate 2.6 million improper and phantom enrollments remain, including over 1 million enrollments without a Social Security number.”
According to the report, several different forms of abuse contributed to the alleged fraud.
Officials say some applicants intentionally understated their income to qualify for larger taxpayer-funded subsidies.
Others allegedly received premium assistance despite failing to meet eligibility requirements.
Investigators also identified what they describe as “phantom enrollments,” in which insurance brokers allegedly enrolled people in Obamacare plans without their knowledge to collect federal commissions.
The report argues that reduced verification requirements made those practices significantly easier to carry out.
Since taking office, the Trump administration says it has restored stricter income verification requirements, ended several special enrollment periods, increased screening for duplicate Medicaid enrollment, and launched investigations into brokers suspected of creating phantom policies.
Officials also say they have strengthened oversight of agents participating in the federal marketplace.
As a result of those efforts, nearly three million enrollments have already been removed from the Affordable Care Act exchanges.
Even after those removals, approximately 19.2 million people remain enrolled.
The administration says its goal is not to reduce legitimate coverage but to ensure taxpayer dollars are being spent only on individuals who actually qualify.
“Preserving the fiscal and programmatic integrity of the ACA Exchanges is key to safeguarding taxpayer-funded resources for those that truly need them,” the report states.
“The federal government paying brokers to enroll individuals without their knowledge is not.”
The report also says the administration will continue pursuing additional enforcement actions against brokers and others accused of exploiting the program.
“The Trump Administration continues to aggressively root out fraud, waste, abuse, and corruption by promulgating new regulations to improve program integrity, investigating suspected improper or fraudulent enrollment, and taking action against agents and brokers committing fraud.”
The findings are likely to reignite debate over the Affordable Care Act and how aggressively eligibility rules should be enforced.
Supporters of the administration argue the report demonstrates that stricter oversight is necessary to protect taxpayers and preserve benefits for those legally entitled to receive them.
Critics of previous verification rollbacks have long warned that loosening enrollment safeguards could increase improper payments and fraud, while supporters of the Biden-era policies argued the changes made healthcare more accessible to eligible Americans, Fox News reported exclusively.
The administration says its investigations remain ongoing, with an estimated 2.6 million additional enrollments still under review as officials continue auditing the federal health insurance exchanges.
Trump has been pushing to replace Obamacare for over a decade, and this may give Republicans enough motivation to actually do something.
