Trump and DOJ ask Supreme Court to toss $83 million defamation verdict
in E. Jean Carroll case
[July 30, 2026]
By LINDSAY WHITEHURST and LARRY NEUMEISTER
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and the Justice Department are
asking the Supreme Court to toss an $83 million defamation verdict won
by writer E. Jean Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault,
saying he can't be sued for comments he made while he was president.
It's the second time Trump has asked the justices to nix damages awarded
by a jury to Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk
show host. The Supreme Court refused in June to hear his appeal of
another verdict, for $5 million, that found him liable for sexual abuse
and defamation.
The latest case centers on comments Trump made during his first term as
president. The Justice Department wants to invoke the Westfall Act,
which shields government employees from being sued for doing their jobs.
“Absent this Court’s intervention, the sitting President is facing
nearly a hundred million dollars of personal liability for conduct that
was well within the scope of his federal office,” federal attorneys
wrote. “That alone deserves this Court’s attention.”
The documents were reviewed Wednesday by The Associated Press and
expected to be formally docketed with the court shortly.
Trump's lawyers, meanwhile, argued that an appeals court “engaged in
procedural contortions” to avoid addressing Trump's claims that
presidential immunity protects him from the $83 million award because he
made the statements in question in 2019 while he was president.
The lawyers argued that the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in
Manhattan ruled in a manner that “cries out for this Court's review in
this unprecedented case" and called the damages “grossly excessive.”
“This is the first case in our nation's history in which a court has
imposed damages liability on a president for his conduct in office,” the
lawyers wrote.
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Carroll's lawyers have declined to comment on the latest Trump
filing.
Trump has long argued he cannot be sued over comments he made about
Carroll during his first term where he disavowed knowing her and
attacked her motivations for going public with her story in a recent
memoir. He's also asking the Supreme Court justices to reconsider
their rejection of his appeal in the $5 million verdict.
The appeal comes about two years after the Supreme Court granted
Trump broad immunity from criminal prosecution as a former
president.
Carroll testified twice before New York juries that Trump sexually
assaulted her in spring 1996 in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman,
a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower. She first went
public with the claims in a 2019 memoir.
She sued Trump for defamation after he accused her of making up the
allegation to help book sales, adding that he’d never met her and
“she’s not my type.” He has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.
A Manhattan jury awarded her $83 million in damages in January 2024.
Lower courts have so far rejected Trump’s appeals to overturn the
verdict, though the New York-based appeals court split over the
decision and agreed to delay that payout until the Supreme Court
weighs in.
In 2023, another jury said Carroll was entitled to $5 million after
concluding that Trump had subjected her to sexual abuse in the
department store encounter and for defamation for remarks he had
made after his first term ended. That judgment has been paid.
The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been
sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has
done.
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Neumeister reported from New York.
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