President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn the ruling that forces him to pay $83 million to writer E. Jean Carroll, arguing that his public statements about the sexual assault accusation she brought against him were protected by presidential immunity.
CNN, who had access to a copy of the appeal, revealed that the president's lawyers filed an appeal before the highest court in which they argue that the ruling issued by the Supreme Court in 2024 on the immunity of presidents for acts carried out in the exercise of their functions should also apply in this defamation litigation.
Trump appeals to presidential immunity
In the brief presented before the magistrates, the defense maintains that never before has a sitting president faced a financial sentence of this magnitude for statements related to the performance of his office.
“This is the first case in our nation's history in which a court has imposed liability for damages on a president for his conduct in office,” Trump's lawyers noted in the appeal.
At the same time, the Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the Supreme Court to allow the federal government to replace Trump as a defendant. The agency argues that a federal law protects public employees from certain civil lawsuits when the events occurred within the scope of their official duties.
“Without intervention by this Court, the sitting President faces nearly $100 million in personal liability for conduct that was within the scope of his federal duties,” the Justice Department said in its filing.
A judicial dispute that remains open
The case has its origins in the accusations of E. Jean Carroll, who claimed that Trump sexually assaulted her in a changing room at the Bergdorf Goodman store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. The then-Republican candidate denied the accusations and called the story a “complete farce,” a “hoax,” and a “scam,” statements that gave rise to the defamation lawsuit.
In 2024, a federal jury in Manhattan awarded Carroll $83.3 million, a decision that was later upheld by an appeals court. Weeks ago, the writer obtained the $5 million payment ordered by a federal jury, after the Supreme Court cleared the last legal obstacle after years of litigation.
Now it will be the Supreme Court that determines whether it agrees to review the case again, a decision that could have implications both for the scope of presidential immunity and for future civil lawsuits against acting leaders.
