Appeals court upholds Trump’s $83 million fine for defaming E. Jean Carroll
The US president’s lawyers argued that he enjoyed immunity when he called the journalist mentally ill while denying raping her
A federal appeals court on Monday upheld the $83.3 million fine imposed by a lower court on President Donald Trump for defaming writer and journalist E. Jean Carroll in 2019. Carroll had months earlier accused Trump of raping her in a Manhattan department store fitting room in the 1990s, an attack for which the U.S. president was found guilty of sexual assault.
The decision to uphold the award means the court has rejected the reasoning of Trump’s lawyers, who argued that the Supreme Court’s ruling in the summer of 2024 that extended presidential immunity in the exercise of official duties also applied in Carroll’s case: the first defamations for which Trump was convicted occurred during his first administration.
The attacks, during which he even called Carroll “mentally ill,” continued after Trump left office in early 2021. The Republican continued them on social media, in press appearances, and even during the trial, held in New York between late 2023 and early 2024, as Trump emerged as the Republican nominee for last November’s presidential election.
The three judges of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Manhattan, unanimously issued the decision, which was made public this Monday. The ruling, however, remains unsigned.
Carroll, 81, sued Trump, 78, in November 2019 for having denied raping her five months earlier. The court ruled in her favor in January 2024. Trump had previously been convicted in May 2023 of sexually assaulting Carroll. The jury then awarded her $5 million, $3 million for defamation.
During the trial, the verdict of which has now been confirmed, the prosecution had sought $10 million, a figure later raised to $12 million by a lawyer specializing in damage claims. The jury’s decision was surprising due to the high amount of damages awarded, which were broken down into several sections.
Trump was to pay Carroll $18.3 million in damages: $11 million to fund a reputational rehabilitation effort and $7.3 million for emotional distress caused by statements the former president made in 2019, shortly after Carroll brought the incident to light, which Trump claimed was to better publicize the sale of a memoir.
Monday’s decision comes after a separate court, also comprised of three judges from the Second Circuit in Manhattan, unanimously upheld a separate civil verdict that sided with Carroll against Trump in 2023 and ordered him to pay $5 million.
The events date back to the mid-1990s, when the U.S. president allegedly assaulted the writer in a fitting room at the Bergdorf Goodman clothing store in New York.
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