E. Jean Carroll’s Judgment Against President Trump Upheld
E. Jean Carroll’s $83M Judgment Against President Trump Upheld
An appeals court has unanimously upheld an $83 million judgment against President Donald Trump for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault.
According to the New York Times, President Trump’s lawyers argued that because his initial denials were issued through official White House channels, they were protected under the Supreme Court ruling giving presidents immunity for official acts. Carroll’s lawyers countered that Trump “was not speaking here about a governmental policy or a function of his responsibilities as President. He was defaming Carroll because of her revelation that many years before he assumed office, he sexually assaulted her. The defamation at issue concerned quintessentially ‘personal’ conduct.”
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected President Trump’s argument that the Supreme Court’s ruling applies to this case. “[W]e conclude that Trump has failed to identify any grounds that would warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity. We also conclude that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable,” the court ruling read.
The judgment came as a result of President Trump verbally disparaging E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of rape in her 2019 book What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal. President Trump attacked Carroll in the press, on social media, and even during the trial itself. The jury found Mr. Trump had acted with malice, and $65 million of the judgment came from punitive damages.
In 2023, Carroll testified that she encountered President Trump at New York’s Bergdorf Goodman department store, where she agreed to help Trump find a gift for a friend. Carroll testified that Trump forced her into a dressing room while in the lingerie department, and forced his fingers and penis inside her vagina. While E. Jean Carroll testified that Trump raped her, the jury ruled he sexually abused her but didn’t rape her.
Shout out to the “protect our daughters” crowd for electing a dude found liable for sexual abuse.
From the New York Times:
In December, a different three-judge panel of the Second Circuit unanimously upheld a separate civil verdict Ms. Carroll won against Mr. Trump in 2023. In that case, a jury awarded her $5 million in damages after finding him liable for sexually abusing Ms. Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s and defaming her in statements he made in 2022, after he was out of office.
Mr. Trump’s lawyers have said he intends to ask the Supreme Court to review the jury’s $5 million verdict and liability finding.
On Monday, Aaron Harison, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team, said in a statement that the American people stand with Mr. Trump and demand “an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system.”
The statement did not say whether Mr. Trump would seek review of the panel’s ruling on Monday to the full Second Circuit appeals court or the Supreme Court.
Roberta Kaplan, E. Jean Carroll’s lawyer, said in a statement that “we look forward to an end to the appellate process so that justice will finally be done.” Carroll has yet to receive any of the damages owed to her from either case due to President Trump’s appeals. In an interview with CNN earlier this year, Carroll said that should President Trump ever pay her what she’s owed, she intended to give the money away.
“The last thing I care about is money. The first thing I care about is people knowing the truth,” Carroll said.
SEE ALSO:
Appeals Court Throws Out President Trump’s $527 Million Civil Penalty
Legal Defense Fund And NAACP File Federal Lawsuit Against Trump Admin Over Anti-DEI Directives
