A federal appeals court upheld Monday a jury verdict finding President Donald Trump defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, keeping Trump on the hook for paying more than $83 million, as a separate case she brought against Trump goes to the Supreme Court.
E. Jean Carroll departs a Manhattan federal court at the conclusion of her defamation suit against Donald Trump on January 26, 2024 in New York City.Getty ImagesKey FactsA panel of judges at the Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled to uphold a jury verdict finding Trump defamed Carroll by attacking her after she publicly accused him of sexually assaulting her in the 1990s and ordering the president to pay $83.3 million in damages.
Trump had appealed the jury’s verdict, arguing to the appeals court that he has presidential immunity from liability in the case, since he made the comments about Carroll while he was president, and that there were several errors during the initial trial, such as excluding evidence that was helpful to Trump and improperly instructing the jury on how to calculate damages.
The appeals court disagreed with the president, ruling the “district court did not err” in its judgment against Trump and that the $83.3 million fine “reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case.”
The appeals court struck down Trump’s arguments challenging the verdict, ruling that the trial was carried out lawfully and Trump was not immune from legal liability in the case, even after the Supreme Court’s ruling that ge Trump and other ex-presidents increased immunity from litigation arising from their conduct in office.
The judges also rejected Trump’s argument that the $83.3 million he was ordered to pay—including $65 million in punitive damages—was excessive, with the court writing “Trump was recklessly indifferent to Carroll's health and safety” when he repeatedly attacked her, and the president “would not stop defaming Carroll unless he was subjected to a substantial financial penalty.”
The White House has not yet responded to a request for comment, while Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan celebrated the ruling in a statement Monday, saying the court affirmed “that E. Jean Carroll was telling the truth, and that President Donald Trump was not,” and Carroll and her team “look forward to an end to the appellate process so that justice will finally be done.”
Crucial QuoteTrump’s repeated attacks on Carroll, including both the ones at direct issue in the lawsuit and the president’s continued statements against the writer, “[support] a significant punitive damages award,” the appeals court wrote in its ruling, noting Trump’s conduct “involved malice and deceit, caused severe emotional injury, and continued over at least a five-year period.”
What To Watch ForTrump can still ask the full 2nd Circuit to weigh in on the case and rule whether the $83.3 million judgment should be upheld. If the full court still rules against him, or declines to take up the case, the president could then ask the Supreme Court to hear the dispute.
Big Number$89.5 million. That’s how much Trump now owes Carroll in the case as of Monday, as the $83.3 million judgment continues to accrue interest while the appeals process moves forward. Trump has already paid money into a court-controlled account to cover the judgment and interest, which will only be paid to Carroll—or returned to Trump—once the appeals process is fully over.
What We Don’t KnowHow Carroll’s other lawsuit against Trump could affect this case. Carroll brought two lawsuits against Trump, the one that resulted in the $83.3 million judgment and a separate lawsuit, in which a jury found Trump liable for both defamation and sexual abuse and ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million. That case ended up going to trial first, and the jury finding Trump liable for defamation there formed the basis for the $83 million case’s trial. Since a jury had already found Trump liable for defamation based on statements that were substantially similar to the ones at issue in the second trial, the court decided that the $83 million trial didn’t he to adjudicate whether Trump defamed Carroll, but could just take that as a given. The jury only had to determine how much he had to pay in damages. The $5 million verdict was also upheld by an appeals court, but Trump has signaled he now intends to take the case to the 6-3 conservative Supreme Court. Should the justices overturn that ruling and find Trump didn’t defame or abuse Carroll, it could threaten the $83 million ruling as well, by throwing out the foundation the jury used to come up with those damages.
Key BackgroundCarroll publicly accused Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her decades earlier, alleging in a piece for New York Magazine that the president raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s. Trump has vehemently denied the allegations and repeatedly attacked Carroll in response, claiming the writer was “not my type.” Carroll sued Trump shortly thereafter, accusing him of defamation. She then filed a second lawsuit alleging both defamation and sexual abuse under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which, despite being brought second, ended up going to trial first, with the jury finding Trump liable for $5 million in May 2023. The other lawsuit then went to trial in January 2024, resulting in the $83.3 million penalty. Trump has continued to attack Carroll even after the jury verdicts, despite the eight-figure penalties against him, and Carroll’s attorneys he not ruled out bringing further litigation.
Further ReadingForbesTrump Wants Supreme Court To Decide Whether He Sexually Abused E. Jean CarrollBy Alison DurkeeForbesWill Trump Pay E. Jean Carroll $89 Million? What To Know As Appeals Court Weighs Defamation CaseBy Alison DurkeeForbesTrump Must Pay E. Jean Carroll $83 Million For Defamation, Jury RulesBy Alison Durkee