NEW YORK — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld an $83.3 million judgmentagainst President Donald Trump for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, rejecting the president’s argument that he should have been protected by presidential immunity.
The judgment, issued by a federal jury in 2024, stemmed from comments Trump made during his first presidential term in response to Carroll’s allegation that Trump raped her in the 1990s. Trump repeatedly denigrated Carroll, claimed he had never met her and said Carroll’s memoir — in which she discussed the rape allegation — “should be sold in the fiction section.”
A federal judge ruled that Trump’s comments were false and defamatory, and a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll the eight-figure civil judgment.
In a 70-page decision, a three-judge panel of the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals wrote that the jury award was “fair and reasonable.”
The panel rejected Trump’s effort to have the judgment overturned based on the Supreme Court’s landmark decision last July on presidential immunity. That decision said Trump could not be prosecuted for some official acts he undertook in his first term. But in Monday’s decision, the 2nd Circuit panel found that the immunity decision didn’t bar liability for Trump in the Carroll case even though Trump made the defamatory statements while he was president.
The panel consisted of Judge Denny Chin, appointed by President Barack Obama; and Judges Maria Araújo Kahn and Sarah A. L. Merriam, both appointed by President Joe Biden.
Last year, a different panel of the 2nd Circuit upheld a separate $5 million civil verdict against Trump for sexual abuse and defamation claims brought by Carroll.
