Trump Asks Supreme Court to Toss $83 Million Carroll Verdict

President Donald Trump asked the US Supreme Court to consider overturning an $83.3 million jury verdict against him in a defamation suit by the writer E. Jean Carroll, according to a copy of the petition reviewed by Bloomberg News.

Trump filed his appeal with the Supreme Court on Tuesday, according to a person familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified as the filing isn’t yet visible on the court’s docket. The Justice Department also urged the court to hear the case, the person said.

Under its normal scheduling practices, the court will say later this year whether it will hear the case as part of the nine-month term that starts in October.

The appeals kick off a fresh clash with a former Elle magazine advice columnist who in 2019 accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room decades earlier. The justices last month let stand a $5 million verdict against Trump in a separate sexual-abuse and defamation suit by Carroll. Trump denies wrongdoing in both cases.

In his latest appeal, Trump contends he is protected by presidential immunity because his allegedly defamatory statements about Carroll were made while he was in office.

“Because accusations bearing on the president’s fitness for office are unquestionably matters of public concern, presidential statements responding to press questions about such accusations are plainly official,” according to the petition. “This court should say so.”

The Justice Department petition centers on a separate issue, its argument that the federal government should have been substituted for Trump as the defendant under a law that protects federal employees from litigation related to their duties on the job.

A representative for Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, declined to comment. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

Pending Long-Shot

Trump, 80, is separately awaiting a decision from the justices on his long-shot request that they reconsider their rejection of his appeal in the $5 million case. That verdict was paid out to the New York writer on July 13.

Carroll alleges that the president defamed her in 2019 by calling her a liar when she went public with her claim. At issue were Trump statements accusing Carroll of lying and fabricating the assault for political purposes and to sell a book.

A New York jury issued the $83.3 million penalty in January 2024 following a trial in which Trump took the witness stand and then stormed out during closing arguments. The 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict.

Trump argues the Supreme Court’s landmark 2024 presidential immunity ruling should have spared him from Carroll’s lawsuit because his remarks qualified as official duties. He contends the appeals court wrongfully downplayed the strength of presidential immunity by concluding that Trump had forfeited his right to the defense by failing to raise it in his initial response to Carroll’s lawsuit.

The verdict marks “the first case in our nation’s history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a president for his conduct in office,” according to the appeal. “Yet, in upholding the exorbitant $83.3 million defamation judgment here, the 2nd Circuit never even decided whether presidential immunity applies to President Trump’s allegedly defamatory statements — statements made from the White House, in response to press questions, denying allegations of personal misconduct directly questioning his fitness for office.”

Trump is represented by Robert J. Giuffra Jr., co-chairman of Sullivan & Cromwell, and Michael Martinich-Sauter of the James Otis Law Group.

In upholding the verdict, the appeals court said Trump’s statements about Carroll “had a domino effect” that resulted in Carroll being “subjected to ongoing and prolific harassment” including “a multitude of death threats and other threats of physical injury.” The appeals court also held that the steep penalty was warranted for Trump.

“We agree with the district court that the jury was entitled to find that Trump would not stop defaming Carroll unless he was subjected to a substantial financial penalty,” the appeals court said.

Justice Department

The Justice Department argument, if adopted by the court, would spare the president even without the immunity defense. The appeal centers on the Westfall Act, a federal statute that protects government employees from lawsuits stemming from their work. The law says that when an employee is sued, the US can be substituted as the defendant if the attorney general certifies the person was acting in an official capacity.

In the Carroll case, then-Attorney General Bill Barr issued a Westfall Act certification in 2020, while Trump was still serving his first term. Joe Biden’s administration withdrew the certification in 2023, letting the case to go to trial.

After Trump returned to the White House in 2025, the Justice Department tried to reinstate the certification during the appeals process. The 2nd Circuit rejected the move, saying the law requires certification before trial, not on appeal.

“After several years of litigation, at substantial cost to all parties, and a significant victory for Carroll, it is simply too late to bring this motion,” the 2nd Circuit said in a 2-1 decision.

US Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued in the new appeal that the 2nd Circuit had rendered the Westfall Act incoherent.

“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,” argued Sauer, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer, in a copy of the filing reviewed by Bloomberg News.

Substituting the US for Trump would result in the suit being dismissed because the US can’t be sued for defamation.

Carroll’s other civil suit was filed under a temporary New York law that allowed victims of decades-old sexual assaults to file civil suits for damages against their alleged attackers. That case also included a claim of defamation over comments Trump made in 2022, as a private citizen.

Photo: US President Donald Trump speaks at the General Motors Proving Ground testing facility in Milford, Michigan, US, on Monday, July 27, 2026. Trump championed his economic agenda, including tariffs and the rolling back of environmental regulations, saying they had revived US auto manufacturing, during a visit to a General Motors Co. facility in the midterm battleground of Michigan.