A federal appeals court on Monday rejected former President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a jury verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
Court ruling and presidential immunity
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in a decision by a three-judge panel, upheld the verdict. Trump had argued that the damages were excessive and that the ruling was invalid in light of a Supreme Court decision expanding presidential immunity.
The judges concluded that Trump “has failed to identify any grounds that would warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity” and confirmed that the lower federal court “did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable.”
Related legal proceedings
The ruling comes less than a week after Trump’s legal team indicated plans to seek Supreme Court review of a separate civil case Carroll filed, in which she was awarded $5 million. Both lawsuits stem from Carroll’s allegations that Trump defamed her while denying her claims that he raped her in the mid-1990s at Manhattan’s Bergdorf Goodman department store.
The White House directed inquiries to Trump’s personal attorneys, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
