Carroll’s lawyers oppose Trump’s appeal over $83 million — The Guardian
Lawyers for journalist and writer E. Jean Carroll have filed an opposition with the US Supreme Court to US President Donald Trump’s petition seeking a review of the ruling ordering him to pay her $83 million in damages. Carroll’s legal team said the court does not need to relieve the president of the consequences of his repeated procedural decisions, The Guardian reports.
Arguments of the parties
Carroll’s team, led by attorney Roberta Kaplan, filed its response to Trump’s petition on October 30. His lawyers argue that presidential immunity protects him from liability for actions taken while in office. In particular, this concerns statements made in 2019 in which Trump called Carroll a liar.
Trump’s side also argued that without Supreme Court intervention, the sitting president would face personal liability of nearly $100 million for actions that, in its view, fell within his federal powers. The president’s lawyers believe the case should be reviewed to protect the institution of the presidency, as the risk of personal liability for official actions could affect future presidents.
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Previous rulings in the case
A jury awarded Carroll $83 million on January 26, 2024. Less than a year earlier, she had won a separate case against Trump, in which she was awarded $5 million. In the first trial, jurors found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and made defamatory statements. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing toward her.
Carroll’s representatives stressed that the ruling in the second case, which determined the amount of damages, has already been repeatedly upheld by lower courts. They also noted that over seven years of litigation, Carroll faced increasingly aggressive accusations from Trump and thousands of threats of death and sexual violence from his supporters.
In September, Trump agreed to stop appealing the first verdict after the US Supreme Court again declined to hear his appeal. The legal disputes arose after Carroll alleged that Trump assaulted her in a fitting room at a Manhattan department store several decades ago. She publicly described this in a New York Magazine article in June 2019.
