A Manhattan jury’s $83.3 million verdict against President Trump for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll — who accused him of raping her inside a Manhattan department store — was “fair and reasonable,” a federal appeals court found Monday.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s argument that he was immune from Carroll’s lawsuit because he was president in 2019, when he told reporters at the White House that he’d “never met” the advice columnist, and that she was “not my type.”
“Trump has failed to identify any grounds that would warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity. We also conclude that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable,” the ruling said.
A federal appeals court on Monday refused to throw out an $83.3 million jury verdict against President Trump for damaging the reputation of the writer E. Jean Carroll in 2019. APThe appeals court also said the jury was entitled to order the president to pay the whopping sum to stop him from engaging in future attacks, noting that he continued defaming Carroll in statements issued during the civil trial itself.
“The statements all shared common themes: Trump continued to assert that Carroll was lying about the 1996 sexual assault and that she was motivated to do so for personal, financial, and political reasons, and to imply that Carroll was too unattractive to be sexually assaulted,” wrote Judges Denny Chin, Sarah Merriam and Maria Araújo Khan.
The Manhattan-based panel’s upholding of the January 2024 verdict leaves Trump, 79, on the hook for the $83.3 million — unless he can convince the US Supreme Court to overturn the verdict.
Carroll, 81, a former Elle magazine columnist, accused Trump of attacking her in 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room. She testified at an earlier, separate trial about Trump sexually assaulting her.
Carroll, 81, a former Elle magazine columnist, accused Trump of attacking her around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room. Getty ImagesA jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse in that case, and ordered him to pay $5 million. At the second trial, a Manhattan federal court jury ordered Trump to pay $65 million to punish Trump for defaming Carroll “out of hatred, ill will, or spite,” $11 million to help Carroll rebuild her reputation and another $7.3 million to compensate her for her pain and suffering.
In a statement Monday, Trump’s legal team accused Carroll of “weaponizing” the justice system for “political” reasons, and called her lawsuits “Witch Hunts” and “Carroll Hoaxes.”
The attorneys didn’t say whether they planned to ask the nation’s highest court to overturn the verdict.
Trump said he had spoken about Carroll in 2019 in his capacity as president, and that failing to give him immunity could undermine the independence of the executive branch. AFP via Getty Images
E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court in New York as her defamation suit against Donald Trump resumes on January 22, 2024, in New York City. Getty ImagesThe 2nd Circuit in June separately upheld the $5 million jury verdict from the first trial, held in May 2023. Trump’s lawyers are planning to ask the Supreme Court to overturn that verdict.
Trump’s lawyers had argued to toss the newer Carroll’s case on presidential immunity grounds, and had claimed in their appeal that the hefty damages award was “excessive.”
But the appeals panel disagreed.
“We hold that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case,” the judges wrote.
