A federal appeals courtroom in New York on Monday upheld the $83.3 million judgment imposed on President Donald Trump for defaming former journal columnist E. Jean Carroll in 2019.
“Trump has did not determine any grounds that may warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity. We additionally conclude that the district courtroom didn’t err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are truthful and cheap,” the opinion mentioned.
Trump final yr was ordered to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll, a former Elle journal columnist, for defaming her in 2019 when he denied sexually abusing her within the dressing room of a Manhattan division retailer within the Nineteen Nineties.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals on Monday rejected Trump’s argument that he was entitled to presidential immunity when he made the statements about Carroll. The appellate courtroom additionally rejected Trump’s argument the jury’s damages have been extreme.
The three-judge panel determined “Trump acted with, at a minimal, reckless disregard for the reality” when he referred to as Carroll a liar and mentioned she’s not his sort. The panel mentioned the $18.3 million the jury awarded Carroll in compensatory damages was truthful.
“After Trump launched his statements, which have been seen by between 85.8 to 104 million individuals, Carroll was immediately and constantly attacked on Twitter and Fb and in emails. She obtained hundreds of such assaults, together with a whole bunch of loss of life threats,” the opinion mentioned.
The panel additionally rejected Trump’s argument the punitive harm award of $65 million was grossly extreme.
President Donald Trump steps off Air Pressure One, September 7, 2025 at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland.
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Photos
“There was ample proof that Trump was recklessly detached to Carroll’s well being and security,” the opinion mentioned. “Furthermore, Trump’s assaults towards Carroll weren’t remoted; relatively, they continued all through the pendency of the almost five-year litigation and have become extra excessive and frequent because the trial approached.”
Carroll’s legal professional, Roberta Kaplan. mentioned in an announcement following the ruling that the attraction courtroom affirmed that “E. Jean Carroll was telling the reality, and that President Donald Trump was not.”
“The Court docket additionally upheld the $83.3 million award of damages as a result of, amongst different issues … she ‘was subjected to a large number of loss of life threats and different threats of bodily harm,'” the assertion mentioned “We look ahead to an finish to the appellate course of in order that justice will lastly be finished.”
In 2023, a jury in a separate trial discovered Trump accountable for the assault and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages for battery and for defaming her in a 2022 social media put up by calling them “a Hoax and a lie.”
The identical courtroom of appeals rejected his attraction of that judgment.
