Writer E. Jean Carroll arrives at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where former U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive to ask a federal appeals court to overturn a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming her, who accused Trump of raping her nearly three decades ago, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 6, 2024.
Adam Gray | Reuters
A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a jury verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
The decision from a trio of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld that verdict, which Trump argued was both excessive and invalid following a Supreme Court decision that expanded his presidential immunity.
The panel held that Trump “has failed to identify any grounds that would warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity.”
The judges also ruled that a lower federal court “did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable.”
The decision came less than a week after Trump’s lawyers signaled they will soon ask the Supreme Court to overturn a jury verdict in a separate civil case Carroll had filed against the president, for which she has been awarded $5 million.
Both lawsuits accused Trump of defaming Carroll in statements denying her accusation that he raped her in the mid-1990s in the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman.
The White House referred CNBC to Trump’s personal lawyers in the case, who did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
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