A federal appeals court has ruled that presidential immunity is overturned in the case of U.S. President Donald Trump, rejecting his bid to avoid paying $83.3 million in damages to writer E. Jean Carroll. The decision, handed down on Monday by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, upholds a 2024 jury award for defamation.
Trump’s legal team argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2024 ruling granting broad presidential immunity for official acts should shield him from liability, claiming that his comments about Carroll were made in his role as president. The three-judge panel unanimously dismissed this, however, stressing that Trump had waived the immunity defence earlier in the case and that the jury’s damages award was fair given the “extraordinary and egregious facts.”
The panel—consisting of Judges Denny Chin, Sarah Merriam, and Maria Araújo Kahn—also rejected Trump’s contention that the trial judge erred by limiting his testimony and barring attempts to relitigate the falsity of Carroll’s claims. They concluded that the trial had been properly conducted.
Carroll, now 81, first accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a New York department store in the 1990s. Trump denied the allegation in 2019, claiming she fabricated the story to sell her memoir. His repeated denials, including a 2022 post on his Truth Social platform, formed the basis of the defamation lawsuits.
The $83.3 million award included $18.3 million for reputational harm and emotional distress, along with $65 million in punitive damages. It follows a separate $5 million jury verdict against Trump in 2023 for defamation and sexual abuse, bringing the total amount confirmed against him to $88.3 million.
While Trump may seek to take the case to the Supreme Court, the latest ruling cements his financial liability to Carroll, who has said her pursuit of the case is about accountability rather than money.
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