Two weeks after being ordered to pay $5 million to E. Jean Carroll for sexual abuse and defamation, President Donald Trump has appealed to the Supreme Court. He seeks to overturn an $83.3 million defamation judgment awarded to Carroll in separate civil trials held in 2023 and 2024.
In the initial trial, the jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll during a 1990s encounter and subsequently defaming her when she disclosed the incident in 2019. In the second trial, Trump was held accountable for defamatory comments made during his presidency, dismissing Carroll as a “whack job” and claiming he had never met her, which he reiterated through various platforms.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, requested substantial damages to deter Trump from continuing to defame her client. Despite the verdicts, Trump maintains his stance of denial.
Trump’s legal team filed on Tuesday, asserting that the appeals panel made an error by not adjudicating whether he had presidential immunity at the time he made the remarks. They argued it is unprecedented for a court to impose damages liability on a President for his conduct while in office.
The Justice Department, led by Trump’s former criminal defense attorney Todd Blanche, supports Trump’s plea for Supreme Court review. They contend Trump is shielded by the Westfall Act, as he operated as a federal employee responding to press inquiries at the White House regarding personal misconduct allegations question his competency for office.
Kaplan has refrained from commenting on the recent court filing.
Carroll described an encounter with Trump, beginning as casual conversation in 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan, resulting in an assault in a dressing room. Trump has consistently denied these accusations, claiming no prior interaction with Carroll.
Trump’s efforts to reverse both verdicts have been dismissed by inferior appeals and district courts. He also requested the Supreme Court to review its refusal to hear his appeal regarding the $5 million judgment. Carroll received approximately $5.6 million in that case, factoring in interest. The interest accumulated on the $83.3 million judgment remains undetermined, as the funds remain in a court-managed account since 2024.
Related topics include E. Jean Carroll, the Supreme Court, and Donald Trump.
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