Donald Trump and the Justice Department are asking the US Supreme Court to overturn an $83m defamation verdict won by writer E Jean Carroll, arguing he cannot be sued for comments made while he was president.
Second appeal to Supreme Court
This is the second time Trump has asked the justices to set aside damages awarded by a jury to Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former talkshow host. The Supreme Court refused in June to hear his appeal of another verdict, for $5m, that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.
Westfall Act invoked
The latest case centers on comments Trump made during his first term. The Justice Department wants to invoke the Westfall Act, which shields government employees from being sued for doing their jobs. Federal attorneys wrote: “Absent this Court’s intervention, the sitting President is facing nearly a hundred million dollars of personal liability for conduct that was well within the scope of his federal office. That alone deserves this Court’s attention.”
The appeal was filed electronically and is expected to be formally docketed with the court on Wednesday.
Trump's legal arguments
Trump’s lawyers argued that an appeals court “engaged in procedural contortions” to avoid addressing his claims of presidential immunity. They said the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan ruled in a manner that “cries out for this Court’s review in this unprecedented case” and called the damages “grossly excessive.” They wrote: “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.”
Carroll’s lawyers have declined to comment on the latest Trump filing.
Background of the case
The appeal comes about two years after the Supreme Court granted Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution as a former president. Carroll testified twice before New York juries that Trump sexually assaulted her in spring 1996 in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman. She first went public in a 2019 memoir. She sued Trump for defamation after he accused her of making up the allegation to help book sales and said “she’s not my type.” He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
A Manhattan jury awarded her $83m in damages in January 2024. In 2023, another jury said Carroll was entitled to $5m after Trump subjected her to sexual abuse and for defamation for remarks made after his first term ended.
