Trump asks US Supreme Court to overturn $83.3 million defamation verdict

U.S. President Donald Trump and the Department of Justice have separately asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a civil court ruling ordering Trump to pay writer E. Jean Carroll $83.3 million for defaming her while denying her allegation that he sexually assaulted her in a New York department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.

In a petition filed on July 29, Trump's lawyers argued that he is immune from the defamation claim because the statements at issue were made in 2019 while he was serving as president, CNBC reports.

“This is the first case in our Nation’s history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a President for his conduct in office,” the petition says.

Trump's legal team argued that a 2024 Supreme Court ruling granting presidents immunity for official acts requires the verdict to be overturned. They said the ruling determined that “most of a President’s public communications” are official acts.

“Here, the President of the United States has been ordered to pay nearly $100 million in damages — including post-judgment interest — for issuing a press release and answering reporters’ questions, from the White House, defending against attacks on his fitness for office,” Trump's petition says.

The Justice Department also argued that the U.S. government should have been substituted as the defendant because Trump was president when he made the statements. Under the Westfall Act, federal employees are protected from certain civil claims arising from actions taken within the scope of their official duties, including defamation.

The petitions were filed a month after the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal of a separate $5 million civil judgment in Carroll's favour. In that case, a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her in statements made in 2022.

The $83.3 million award stems from a separate January 2024 jury verdict finding Trump liable for defaming Carroll through statements made in 2019 after she publicly accused him of rape. That judgment was later upheld by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

By Sabina Mammadli