American taxpayers won’t be paying for the continuing attraction of President Donald Trump’s $83 million defamation case, a federal appeals court docket decided on Wednesday.
A panel of judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals on Wednesday denied Trump’s request to have Justice Division legal professionals argue in his attraction of columnist E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case in opposition to Trump.
A New York jury final 12 months ordered Trump to pay the previous Elle journal columnist $83.3 million in damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her accusation that he sexually assaulted her within the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman division retailer within the mid-Nineties. Trump has denied all allegations.
DOJ legal professionals had argued that since a few of Trump’s alleged conduct fell inside the scope of his function as president, the Justice Division ought to have the ability to defend the president in court docket.
President Donald Trump speaks with the media throughout a gathering with members of the Juventus soccer membership within the Oval Workplace of the White Home in Washington, June 18, 2025.
Ken Cedeno/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock
“Substitution is required as a result of as soon as the Legal professional Normal certifies {that a} defendant is appearing inside the scope of his workplace or employment, the US is the social gathering defendant until and till a court docket guidelines on the contrary,” they argued.
ABC Information has reached out to Trump’s authorized crew for remark.
Oral arguments in Trump’s attraction of the case are set for June 24.
Final week the 2nd Circuit denied Trump’s request to rehear his problem to a $5 million civil judgment one other jury awarded Carroll in 2023.
