Which Carroll defamation verdict is still live at SCOTUS?

Last verified: Aug. 1, 2026, UTC. Legal review: Mara Venn, procedural-status review. This is a docket-status record, not legal advice.

For anyone checking trump supreme court e jean carroll defamation verdict, the first correction is procedural: there is no single “Carroll verdict” posture. As of this status check, the $5 million track is paid after certiorari was denied; the $83.3 million judgment is unpaid, bonded, and newly before the Supreme Court on the larger defamation track.

That table is the operative map. The $5 million matter still has a rehearing petition visible on the Supreme Court docket, so it should not be described as if the docket page has disappeared. But for collection and enforcement purposes, the June 29 denial became concrete when the escrow was released and Carroll was paid. The $83.3 million matter is different: it remains unpaid and is now inside a live Supreme Court response window.

The two tracks, without blending the numbers

The smaller track is Supreme Court No. 25-573. It arises from the Southern District of New York case numbered 22-cv-10016 and the Second Circuit appeal numbered 23-793. The jury verdict was $5 million, not “about $83 million,” and it is the track where the Supreme Court denied certiorari on June 29, 2026. [1][6]

SCOTUSblog reported that the petition had been rescheduled repeatedly between February and June before the Court denied review without any noted dissent. [7] The Second Circuit had already affirmed the judgment on Dec. 30, 2024, and the docket reflects the later denial of rehearing en banc on June 13, 2025. [1][6]

The payment step matters because status language often lags behind the docket. NPR reported that Kaplan ordered release of the escrow on July 8, 2026, after certiorari had been denied “without dissent,” saying it was “time for him to do equity”; Carroll then received approximately $5.625 million on July 14. [2] Rounded references to $5.6 million are not wrong as shorthand, but a status record should not confuse that rounded payment figure with the original $5 million verdict.

The larger track is Supreme Court No. 26-141. It arises from the Southern District of New York case numbered 20-cv-07311 and the Second Circuit appeal numbered 24-644. The verdict was $83.3 million, not merely “$83 million” when precision matters. The component amounts were $7.3 million for emotional distress, $11 million for reputational harm, and $65 million in punitive damages. [3]

That judgment was entered Feb. 8, 2024, affirmed by the Second Circuit on Sept. 8, 2025, and left in place when en banc review was denied on Apr. 29, 2026. [3][8][9] The Supreme Court docket now shows Trump’s petition filed July 28, docketed July 30, and a response due Aug. 31, 2026. [3]

The Justice Department is also in the Supreme Court on this track. AP reported that Trump and the Justice Department filed separate petitions asking the Court to toss the $83.3 million verdict. [5] That matters for citation because the pending posture is not just “Trump seeks review”; the United States is separately asking for review on substitution issues tied to the Westfall Act.

What is live now in the $83.3 million track

No. 26-141 is the live exposure because it combines three features that the $5 million track no longer has in practical terms: an unpaid judgment, a pending cert-stage response deadline, and a stay supported by bonds rather than payment.

• Unpaid judgment: AP’s late-July account treated the $83.3 million award as still unpaid while the Supreme Court petitions were filed. [5]
• Appeal security: AP, via PBS NewsHour, reported that the Second Circuit allowed Trump not to pay “for now” after he posted an additional approximately $7.46 million bond for interest, on top of the $91.63 million appeal bond posted in March 2024 and underwritten by a Chubb subsidiary. [4]
• Supreme Court deadline: the No. 26-141 docket lists the response due Aug. 31, 2026. [3]

The bond figures should be kept separate from the verdict. The $91.63 million bond was roughly 110% of the $83.3 million judgment, and the later approximately $7.46 million bond addressed accruing interest while further review continued. [4] Neither figure means Carroll has collected the $83.3 million judgment.

The questions presented are procedural and immunity-focused

The Supreme Court filing in the larger track is not mainly a request to re-try the facts. SCOTUSblog summarized Trump’s petition as presenting three questions: whether presidential immunity can be waived or forfeited without an express renunciation; whether a sitting president’s White House responses to press inquiries are official acts under Trump v. United States; and whether the United States should be substituted under the Westfall Act after Attorney General Pamela Jo Bondi’s April 2025 recertification. [10]

The first question has a specific procedural history. In a Dec. 13, 2023 decision in No. 23-1045, the Second Circuit held that presidential immunity could be waived and had been waived in that appeal. [11] The second question invokes the Supreme Court’s July 1, 2024 official-acts immunity decision. [10] The third question concerns substitution of the United States under the Westfall Act, which the Second Circuit rejected on Aug. 8, 2025; SCOTUSblog reported the government’s position that a no-time-limit reading was “illogical.” [10]

Those questions may have broader doctrinal consequences, but this record does not need to turn into a general presidential-immunity essay. The immediate professional task is simpler: identify that No. 26-141 is pending, that the response is due Aug. 31, and that the judgment has not been paid.

The $5 million track: closed for payment purposes, with a narrow rehearing caveat

No. 25-573 should be described carefully because two statements can both be true: Carroll has been paid on the $5 million track, and the docket still reflects a rehearing petition after certiorari denial.

Aug. 17 should not be written as a promised Supreme Court decision date. It is a possible-action date inferred from the July 23 distribution and Supreme Court calendar practice. The No. 25-573 docket itself is the controlling source for whether any rehearing action has actually appeared. [1]

What this record is not re-deciding

The June 29 denial also produced an evidentiary-law story about Federal Rule of Evidence 415 and Rule 403. That record belongs in the site’s sister piece, Supreme Court Denies Cert in Carroll, Locking In FRE 415’s Reach. This page is narrower: which Carroll track is paid, which is pending, and what the next docket dates require a professional citation to say.

That is also why the collection posture receives more space here than the trial narrative. The site has treated high-value judgment records this way before, including the Alex Jones / Infowars bankruptcy collection record, where the central risk signal was not the size of the verdict alone but whether anything had been collected. The same discipline applies here. A large damages number is not the same thing as a paid judgment.

Readers looking for broader defamation-liability framing can compare the site’s records on Trump defamation litigation as a procedural-risk case study and false claims in political debates and legal consequences. This record stays with the docket because that is where the status risk now sits.

Citation rule as of Aug. 1, 2026

Do not cite “the Carroll verdict” without naming the track. The safe current formulations are these:

• $5 million track, No. 25-573: cert denied June 29, 2026; Carroll paid approximately $5.625 million on July 14, 2026; rehearing petition distributed July 23, 2026. [1][2]
• $83.3 million track, No. 26-141: unpaid; stayed with appeal security; Trump’s cert petition docketed July 30, 2026; response due Aug. 31, 2026; separate DOJ petition also filed. [3][4][5]

The next update triggers are Aug. 17, if rehearing action appears on No. 25-573, and Aug. 31, when the response is due in No. 26-141. Until then, the live monetary exposure is the $83.3 million judgment; the $5 million track is paid, with only the rehearing caveat left to check.

References

1. Trump v. Carroll, No. 25-573, Supreme Court of the United States.
2. E. Jean Carroll receives $5.6 million in damages from Trump, NPR, Jul. 14, 2026.
3. Trump v. Carroll, No. 26-141, Supreme Court of the United States.
4. Appeals court says Trump doesn’t have to pay $83 million — for now, AP via PBS NewsHour, May 12, 2026.
5. Trump and Justice Department ask Supreme Court to toss $83M defamation verdict, AP.
6. Carroll v. Trump, Justia, Dec. 30, 2024.
7. Supreme Court will not consider $5 million verdict against Trump, SCOTUSblog, Jun. 29, 2026.
8. Carroll v. Trump, Justia, Sept. 8, 2025.
9. No en banc in Trump appeals of E. Jean Carroll verdict, $83 million judgment, Courthouse News, Apr. 29, 2026.
10. Trump asks Supreme Court to hear appeal of $83.3 million defamation verdict against him, SCOTUSblog, Jul. 29, 2026.
11. Carroll v. Trump, Justia, Dec. 13, 2023.