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Immunity would not defend Trump from $83.3M…
Trials & Litigation
Immunity would not defend Trump from $83.3M defamation verdict over sexual assault denials, 2nd Circuit guidelines
By Debra Cassens Weiss
September 9, 2025, 9:19 am CDT
Author E. Jean Carroll walks out of Manhattan federal court docket in New York Metropolis on Might 9, 2023. (Picture by Seth Wenig/The Related Press)
A federal appeals court docket has affirmed an $83.3 million defamation verdict in opposition to President Donald Trump for denying author E. Jean Carroll’s declare that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room within the Nineteen Nineties.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals at New York dominated Monday that Trump just isn’t protected by presidential immunity, regardless of a July 2024 choice by the U.S. Supreme Court docket.
The Supreme Court docket choice in Trump v. United States “merely reaffirmed long-established rules,” the 2nd Circuit stated. The excessive court docket’s choice held that presidents have absolute immunity from prison prosecution when exercising core constitutional powers and at the very least presumptive immunity for acts “throughout the outer perimeter” of their official tasks.
The 2nd Circuit beforehand dominated that Trump had waived his immunity by failing to boost it in a trial court docket, and the difficulty can’t be relitigated. The Supreme Court docket case didn’t change prevailing regulation on waiver of immunity, the appeals court docket stated, and the case doesn’t characterize an intervening change of regulation justifying reconsideration of the sooner choice.
The appeals court docket additionally dominated that the injury award, which included $65 million for punitive damages, was truthful and affordable.
“The document on this case helps the district court docket’s willpower that the ‘the diploma of reprehensibility’ of Mr. Trump’s conduct was remarkably excessive, maybe unprecedented,” the 2nd Circuit stated.
The 2nd Circuit cited “ample proof” that Trump was “recklessly detached to Carroll’s well being and security.” Quoting the district court docket, the 2nd Circuit stated Trump made “a number of statements castigating Ms. Carroll as a politically and financially motivated liar, insinuating that she was too unattractive for him to have sexually assaulted [her] and threatening that she would ‘pay dearly’ for talking out.”
The statements had a “domino impact” as Carroll was subjected to “ongoing and prolific harassment on account of these statements, together with a large number of demise threats and different threats of bodily damage,” the 2nd Circuit stated.
The case earlier than the 2nd Circuit is named Carroll I to distinguish it from a separate lawsuit filed by Carroll.
Carroll made the sexual assault allegation in a guide, main Trump to accuse Carroll of fabricating her declare. Carroll sued for defamation for Trump’s declare that she was mendacity, made throughout his first time period in workplace, within the case referred to as Carroll I. Then New York handed a regulation permitting sexual assault survivors a one-year window to sue over time-barred claims. Carroll sued below the regulation in a case referred to as Carroll II and alleged defamation for Trump’s continued declare after he left workplace that she was mendacity.
Jurors in Carroll II present in Might 2023 that Trump sexually assaulted however didn’t rape Carroll, and he was responsible for $5 million for denying that it occurred.
Jurors in Carroll I discovered Trump responsible for $83.3 million in January 2024 for defaming Carroll.
The New York Instances and Law360 are among the many publications with protection of the 2nd Circuit’s choice.
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