Trump Seeks Supreme Court Review of Defamation Judgments

Two weeks after former President Donald Trump lost his attempt to avoid paying $5 million in damages for sexual abuse and defamation to writer E. Jean Carroll, he has appealed to the Supreme Court to dismiss a separate $83.3 million defamation judgment against him. Both judgments stem from civil federal trials held in 2023 and 2024.

In the first trial, a jury found Mr. Trump responsible for sexually abusing Carroll during a 1990s encounter and defaming her after she spoke publicly in 2019. The second judgment relates to Mr. Trump’s denials made during his presidency, including derogatory remarks about Carroll and claims of never having met her. He repeated these denials publicly and on social media, as noted by Carroll’s legal team during the trial.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, urged the jury to award sufficient damages to deter Mr. Trump from further defaming her client. Mr. Trump continues to refute the allegations.

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, his attorneys argued in the Tuesday filing. They claim the appeals panel made an error by not considering whether Mr. Trump had presidential immunity when making the contested statements.

The Justice Department, under the leadership of Mr. Trump’s former criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche, aligns with Mr. Trump’s request for Supreme Court review. They argue he is shielded from liability by the Westfall Act, since he made his comments about Carroll while acting as a federal employee. They assert these statements were responses to press inquiries while he was at the White House, addressing allegations that questioned his capacity for office.

Kaplan has not commented on Mr. Trump’s latest legal move. Carroll testified to an encounter at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan in 1996, which she stated began with light-hearted banter but escalated into an assault inside a dressing room. Mr. Trump denies any misconduct, claiming he never met Carroll.

Mr. Trump’s continuous attempts to overturn these verdicts have been unsuccessful in lower appellate and district courts. He also seeks Supreme Court reconsideration of its earlier decision not to hear his appeal concerning the $5 million case. Carroll ultimately received $5.6 million, including interest. It remains unclear how much interest has accumulated on the $83.3 million judgment, managed by a court-controlled account since 2024.