A U.S. federal appeals court on Monday upheld a civil jury’s decision that former President Donald Trump must pay $83.3 million to E. Jean Carroll for his repeated social media attacks and public statements following her accusation of sexual assault against him.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump’s appeal of the defamation award, describing the jury’s damages as “fair and reasonable.”
A three-judge panel highlighted the hundreds of death threats Carroll received and agreed with the trial judge’s finding that the “degree of reprehensibility” of Trump’s behavior was “remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.”
Trump had argued that the damages, particularly a $65 million punitive award, were excessively high and sought a new trial after the Supreme Court expanded presidential immunity. However, the appeals court firmly dismissed these claims, stating that Trump’s “extraordinary and unprecedented” attacks against Carroll, then 81, warranted the significant award due to “the unique and egregious facts of this case.”
Trump’s legal team responded through a spokesperson, calling for “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 case is expected to potentially reach the Supreme Court.
The 2nd Circuit’s ruling noted “ample evidence” that Trump was recklessly indifferent to Carroll’s health and safety after he publicly branded her as a politically and financially motivated liar, suggested she was too unattractive for him to have assaulted, and warned she would “pay dearly” for speaking out.
This ruling focuses on the second and much larger defamation award tied to Trump’s sustained attacks on Carroll’s character, which began after she accused him in her 2019 memoir of sexually assaulting her decades earlier at a Manhattan department store.
In her memoir and during the 2023 trial, Carroll recounted a 1996 encounter at Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue, where a flirtatious meeting allegedly ended with Trump violently assaulting her in a dressing room—slamming her against a wall, pulling down her tights, and forcing himself on her.
The initial jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse but not rape under New York law. Trump consistently denied the encounter, claiming Carroll fabricated the story to boost book sales and asserted she was “not my type.”
In 2023, the jury awarded Carroll $5 million for the alleged assault and Trump’s subsequent denials after his presidency.
Following this verdict, a second trial with a new jury was held solely to determine damages for Trump’s defamatory statements made during his presidency in 2019.
On Monday, the appeals court agreed with the lower court, stating the trial judge “did not err” and the jury’s damage awards were justified given “the extraordinary and egregious facts.”
The court also pointed out that Trump’s attacks on Carroll continued for at least five years, intensifying as the trial neared and even during the trial itself, including a statement two days in where Trump vowed to defame Carroll “a thousand times.”
