Trials & Litigation
Immunity does not defend Trump from $83.3M defamation verdict over sexual assault denials, 2nd Circuit guidelines
September 9, 2025, 9:19 am CDT
Author E. Jean Carroll walks out of Manhattan federal court docket in New York Metropolis on Could 9, 2023. (Photograph 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 Courtroom of Appeals at New York dominated Monday that Trump is just not protected by presidential immunity, regardless of a July 2024 determination by the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
The Supreme Courtroom determination in Trump v. United States “merely reaffirmed long-established rules,” the 2nd Circuit stated. The excessive court docket’s determination held that presidents have absolute immunity from prison prosecution when exercising core constitutional powers and at the least presumptive immunity for acts “inside the outer perimeter” of their official obligations.
The 2nd Circuit beforehand dominated that Trump had waived his immunity by failing to boost it in a trial court docket, and the problem can’t be relitigated. The Supreme Courtroom case didn’t change prevailing legislation on waiver of immunity, the appeals court docket stated, and the case doesn’t characterize an intervening change of legislation justifying reconsideration of the sooner determination.
The appeals court docket additionally dominated that the injury award, which included $65 million for punitive damages, was honest and affordable.
“The report 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 mess of dying threats and different threats of bodily damage,” the 2nd Circuit stated.
The case earlier than the 2nd Circuit is called Carroll I to distinguish it from a separate lawsuit filed by Carroll.
Carroll made the sexual assault allegation in a ebook, 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 generally known as Carroll I. Then New York handed a legislation permitting sexual assault survivors a one-year window to sue over time-barred claims. Carroll sued beneath the legislation in a case generally known 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 Could 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 Occasions and Law360 are among the many publications with protection of the 2nd Circuit’s determination.
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