Donald Trump Defamation Case: Appeals Court Upholds $83.3 Million Award to E Jean Carroll
Donald Trump defamation case took a historic turn on Monday when a federal appeals court upheld an $83.3 million jury award to writer E Jean Carroll. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan unanimously ruled through a three-judge panel that the damages awarded by the jury were fair and proportionate to Trump’s actions.
The court declared that Trump defamed E Jean Carroll in 2019 after she accused him of raping her in a Manhattan department store decades earlier. Judges stated that the district court handled the case correctly and justified the damages based on what they called the “extraordinary and egregious facts” of the dispute.
Trump argued that presidential immunity, granted by a Supreme Court ruling for official acts, shielded him from Carroll’s lawsuit. The panel firmly rejected that claim and confirmed that Trump’s attacks on Carroll fell outside official presidential duties.
The jury awarded $65 million in punitive damages, marking the largest chunk of the $83.3 million penalty. Jurors concluded that Trump acted with malice in his repeated denials and public attacks against Carroll. Carroll’s lawyers urged the jury to impose a substantial penalty, emphasizing that only a large award could deter Trump from continuing his verbal assaults.
Trump targeted Carroll through social media, press conferences, and even during the trial. Despite his continued denials, the appeals court reinforced the jury’s findings that his words caused deliberate harm.
This ruling adds to Trump’s mounting legal setbacks. In December, another 2nd Circuit panel upheld a $5 million verdict in Carroll’s favor. That earlier jury found him liable for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s and for defaming her in 2022 after leaving office. Together, these two rulings mark significant legal consequences for the former president and his public statements.