US court upholds sexual assault defamation order against Trump

 A federal appeals court has refused to throw out an $83.3m jury verdict against US President Donald Trump for damaging the reputation of the writer E Jean Carroll in 2019 when he denied her rape claim.

The US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in Manhattan on Monday rejected Trump’s argument that the January 2024 verdict should be overturned because he deserved presidential immunity from Carroll’s lawsuit.

“We hold that the district court 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 US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit wrote.

Neither the White House nor Trump’s personal lawyers in the case immediately responded to requests for comment.

The Second Circuit court on June 13 upheld Carroll’s separate $5m jury verdict against Trump in May 2023 for a similar defamation and sexual assault suit.

Carroll, 81, a former Elle magazine columnist, accused Trump of attacking her around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room.

Trump first denied her claim in June 2019, telling a reporter that Carroll was “not my type” and had concocted the story to sell a book called What Do We Need Men For? – a memoir about her life.

Trump essentially repeated his comments in an October 2022 Truth Social post, leading to the $5m verdict, though the jury did not find that he had raped Carroll.

The $83.3m award comprised $18.3m of damages for emotional and reputational harm, and $65m of punitive damages.

In his latest appeal, Trump argued that the US Supreme Court’s July 2024 decision providing him with substantial criminal immunity shielded him from liability in Carroll’s civil case.

He added that he had spoken about Carroll in 2019 in his capacity as president, and that failing to give him immunity could undermine the independence of the executive branch of the US government.

Trump also said US District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw both trials, had made other mistakes, including by striking out his testimony that, in speaking about Carroll, “I just wanted to defend myself, my family, and frankly the presidency.”