A federal appeals court in New York on Monday squashed President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a jury’s decision to award writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million in a defamation case after she accused Trump of raping her in a department store in the 1990s.
The unanimous decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan, which was published unsigned, came six years after Carroll first filed her case, which she won in 2024.
“We hold that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case,” the court wrote.
The White House referred TheWrap to Trump’s personal attorneys.
“The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes, the defense of which the Attorney General has determined is legally required to be taken over by the Department of Justice because Carroll based her false claims on the President’s official acts, including statements from the White House,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said. “President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he is focusing on his mission to Make America Great Again.”
Meanwhile, Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, told TheWrap: “Earlier today, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed, in a comprehensive 70-page ruling, that E. Jean Carroll was telling the truth, and that President Donald Trump was not. The Court also upheld the $83.3 million award of damages because, among other things, Donald Trump had been ‘recklessly indifferent’ to E Jean Carroll’s ‘health and safety,’ given that she ‘was subjected to a multitude of death threats and other threats of physical injury.’ We look forward to an end to the appellate process so that justice will finally be done.”
The decision also took to task Trump’s attempt to rely on the Supreme Court’s ruling last year granting presidential immunity for official acts, arguing the president had not raised the argument in his past appeals and had not demonstrated how it would apply in this case.
“Trump had the opportunity and incentive to raise this challenge in his initial appeal and failed to do so; hence, he may not do so now,” it wrote.
The massive award came after Trump repeatedly assailed Carroll on social media and in news conferences, including throughout the trial itself. The attacks led the jury to impose a large part of the award — $65 million — as punitive damages intended to punish him. The remainder was awarded for emotional and reputational harm.
The decision on Monday came after a December decision by the Second Circuit that declined to overturn Carroll’s $5 million win in a separate case, which found Trump liable for sexual abuse. Trump’s attorneys said in a recent court filing that they plan to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the decision.
Carroll testified last year that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996, which she mostly kept secret until revealing it in a book excerpt in New York magazine in 2019. After the president lashed out at her for the revelation, Carroll first accused Trump of defamation.
