A federal appeals court panel on Monday upheld advice writer E. Jean Carroll’s $83.3 million defamation award she secured from President Trump last year, rejecting Trump’s claims of presidential immunity.
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The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals previously affirmed Carroll’s first trial win that found Trump liable for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s and ordered him to pay $5 million. The president is preparing to take that ruling to the Supreme Court.
Monday’s ruling, meanwhile, upholds the jury’s verdict in Carroll’s second trial, which brought defamation claims against Trump for publicly denying the columnist’s story after she went public during the president’s first White House term. The jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million.
On appeal, Trump’s lawyers argued the award is excessive, Trump is entitled to presidential immunity and the trial judge improperly struck portions of Trump’s brief testimony before the jurors.
“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 appeals panel wrote in its unsigned decision.
The three-judge panel comprised Denny Chin, appointed by former President Obama; Sarah Merriam, appointed by former President Biden; and Maria Araújo Kahn, another Biden appointee.
“Upon review of the evidence, we agree with the district court that the jury was entitled to find that Trump would not stop defaming Carroll unless he was subjected to a substantial financial penalty,” the court wrote.
The panel handed Trump a loss in June by declining to allow his Justice Department to step in for him and try to toss the case.
Trump can now appeal to the Supreme Court or first ask the full 2nd Circuit to reconsider Monday’s decision.
“The American People are supporting President Trump in historic numbers, and 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 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 in a statement.
“President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he is focusing on his mission to Make America Great Again,” the statement continued.
Robbie Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, celebrated the ruling in a statement, saying the court affirmed “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,” Kaplan said.
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