A federal appeals court today upheld a civil jury's finding that US President Donald Trump must pay US$83.3 million (NZ$140 million) to E. Jean Carroll for his repeated social media attacks and public statements against the longtime advice columnist after she accused him of sexual assault.
The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals rejected Trump's appeal of the defamation award, calling the jury's damages awards "fair and reasonable”.
A three-judge panel, citing hundreds of death threats Carroll faced, said the case record supported the trial judge's "determination that ‘the degree of reprehensibility’ of Mr Trump’s conduct was remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented”.
Trump had argued the damages were unreasonably excessive, particularly a US$65 million (NZ$109.2 million) punitive damage award, and pushed for a new trial after the Supreme Court expanded presidential immunity.
But the appeals court roundly rejected those arguments, writing that Trump’s “extraordinary and unprecedented” broadsides against Carroll, 81, justified the steep award, given “the unique and egregious facts of this case”.
Lawyers for Trump responded through a spokesperson to a request for comment by calling for “an immediate end to the political weaponisation 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 likely headed to the Supreme Court.
In its ruling, the 2nd Circuit said there is “ample evidence” that Trump was recklessly indifferent to Carroll’s health and safety after “castigating Ms Carroll as a politically and financially motivated liar" and “insinuating that she was too unattractive for him to have sexually assaulted” and would “pay dearly” for speaking out.
Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed the decision, saying in a statement that the appeals court affirmed that “Carroll was telling the truth, and that President Donald Trump was not”. Noting the threats to her client, Kaplan said they “look forward to an end to the appellate process”.
At trial, Carroll testified she feared for her safety after receiving hundreds of death threats and losing her decadeslong career at Elle magazine.
The ruling centred on the second — and far more expensive — of two defamation awards issued to Carroll over Trump’s yearslong attacks on her character, which began after she accused Trump in her 2019 memoir of sexually assaulting her decades earlier at a Manhattan department store.
In her memoir and again at a 2023 trial, Carroll described how a chance encounter with Trump at Bergdorf Goodman’s Fifth Avenue in 1996 started with the two flirting as they shopped, then ended with a violent struggle inside a dressing room.
Carroll said Trump slammed her against a wall, pulled down her tights and forced himself on her.
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