Appeals court upholds E. Jean Carroll's $83.3M defamation judgment
against Trump
[September 09, 2025]
By JAKE OFFENHARTZ
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld a civil jury's
finding that President Donald Trump must pay $83.3 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 U.S. 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
$65 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 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 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 centered 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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E. Jean Carroll exits the New York Federal Court after former
President Donald Trump appeared in court, Sept. 6, 2024, in New
York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez, File)
At the initial trial, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse,
but concluded he hadn’t committed rape as defined under New York
law.
Trump repeatedly denied the encounter took place and accused Carroll
of making it up to help sell her book. He also said Carroll was “not
my type.”
The 2023 jury awarded Carroll $5 million to compensate her for both
the alleged attack and statements Trump made denying after his first
presidency ended that it had happened.
After that first verdict, the court conducted a second trial with a
new jury for the sole purpose of deciding damages for statements
Trump made attacking Carroll’s character and truthfulness while he
was president in 2019.
Trump skipped the first trial but attended the second, which took
place during his 2024 presidential run. He portrayed the lawsuit as
part of a broader effort to smear him and prevent him from regaining
the White House.
His lawyers complained that the judge, in setting rules for the
damages trial, had barred Trump and his defense team from claiming
before the jury that he was innocent. The judge said that issue had
been settled by the first jury and didn’t need to be revisited.
On Monday, the appeals court agreed, saying the trial judge “did not
err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly
rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the
extraordinary and egregious facts of this case.”
The 2nd Circuit noted that Trump continued his attacks against
Carroll for at least five years, making them “more extreme and
frequent as the trial approached.”
“He also continued these same attacks during the trial itself,” the
appeals court said. “In one such statement, issued two days into the
trial, Trump proclaimed that he would continue to defame Carroll 'a
thousand times.'”
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Associated Press writers Darlene Superville in Washington, D.C., and
Larry Neumeister in New York City contributed to this report.
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