Trump asks Supreme Court to reverse $83 million E. Jean Carroll verdict
President Donald trump’s legal team has petitioned the supreme Court to reverse a New York jury’s 2024 verdict,which found him liable for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. This follows a federal appeals court’s refusal to rehear the $83 million judgment, which accused Trump of defamation related to her sexual assault allegations from the 1990s.Trump’s filings challenge the court’s failure to address whether his presidential immunity shields him from such liability, citing the Supreme Court’s recent decision on presidential immunity. He argues that his statements denying the allegations were made in his official capacity and requests that the U.S. government be substituted as the defendant, invoking the Westfall Act. Trump denies Carroll’s claims and contends that her accusations and key evidence are fabricated. Carroll has filed two defamation lawsuits against Trump; she won both,with the second awarding her over $83 million. Trump appealed both verdicts to the Supreme Court, which declined to rehear the first case, and he has since paid the settlement and accrued interest.
President Donald Trump‘s legal team on Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to reverse a New York jury’s 2024 verdict that found him liable for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
Trump’s petition to the Supreme Court comes after a federal appeals court in late April declined his request to rehear the $83 million defamation case, which concluded the president defamed Carroll when he disputed her accusation that he sexually abused her in a dressing room in the 1990s.
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In court filings, Trump said the appeals court failed to rule on whether his presidential immunity shielded him from liability for defamation claims, invoking the Supreme Court’s landmark 2024 presidential immunity decision.
He requested that justices find his statements denying Carroll’s claims were made in relation to his official capacity as president, in addition to asking the Supreme Court to let the U.S. government swap as the defendant. The Department of Justice is seeking to invoke the Westfall Act, which shields government employees from being sued for doing their jobs.
“This is the first case in our nation’s history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a President for his conduct in office,” Trump’s attorneys wrote. “Because accusations bearing on the President’s fitness for office are unquestionably matters of public concern, Presidential statements responding to press questions about such accusations are plainly official. This Court should say so.”
“The Second Circuit instead engaged in procedural contortions to avoid addressing Presidential immunity,” the petition continued.
Carroll has brought two lawsuits against Trump, both of them regarding defamation over her sexual abuse claims. The president has denied all of her claims, arguing that the timing of her sexual abuse accusation was suspicious and helped promote her book tour. Trump has also claimed Carroll has lied about key evidence, including the dress she said she was wearing at the time of the alleged assault.
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Carroll filed the first lawsuit in 2019 and secured a $5 million victory in the case in a 2023 court decision. She filed the second lawsuit in 2022, making additional claims under New York’s Adult Survivors Act. She won that case as well, winning herself over $83 million.
Trump appealed both verdicts to the Supreme Court, which declined last month to rehear the first lawsuit. He has since paid out the $5 million settlement to Carroll, in addition to interest that had accrued since 2023.
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