Trump Argues That His Immunity Extends to E. Jean Carroll's Lawsuits
Trump Argues That His Immunity Extends to E. Jean Carroll’s Lawsuits
The president, who was found liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll, is contending that he doesn’t have to pay the $83 million he owes for defaming her.
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President Trump is appealing the $83.3 million verdict that E. Jean Carroll won in a lawsuit. Kirsten Luce for The New York Times
By Benjamin Weiser
Jan. 27, 2025
President Trump and the writer E. Jean Carroll are arguing over whether a Supreme Court decision affording him substantial criminal immunity also shields him from having to pay tens of millions in damages for insulting her and saying she lied about his sexually assaulting her.
Mr. Trump made his arguments last year in his appeal of the $83.3 million verdict by a jury that found him liable for defaming Ms. Carroll in 2019 after she accused him of a decades-old attack. On Monday, Ms. Carroll pushed sharply back.
Her lawyer, Roberta A. Kaplan, argued in a brief that Mr. Trump’s view of the Supreme Court’s ruling, which protected him from charges that he tried to overturn the 2020 election, was too expansive. His statements calling Ms. Carroll’s accusation “a complete con job” and “a Hoax and a lie,” were strictly personal, she wrote. She said they fell far outside the boundaries of the official acts that presidential immunity protects.
“If there were ever a case where immunity does not shield a president’s speech, this one is it,” Ms. Kaplan said in her brief.
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Benjamin Weiser is a Times reporter covering the federal courts and U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan, and the justice system more broadly.
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