US President Donald Trump and the Justice Department have filed an appeal with the Supreme Court to overturn an $83 million (€71 million) defamation verdict awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll testified twice before New York juries that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman in the spring of 1996. She first made these allegations public in a 2019 memoir. Following this, Carroll sued Trump for defamation after he denied knowing her and accused her of fabricating the allegations to boost book sales, stating she was “not his type.” Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing.
Trump's legal team argues that presidential immunity protects him from the defamation award because the statements were made while he was serving as president in 2019. The Justice Department supports this position, citing the Westfall Act, which shields government employees from lawsuits over actions taken as part of their official duties.
Federal attorneys emphasized the stakes, stating, “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. That alone deserves this Court’s attention.” They also noted, “This is the first case in our nation's history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a president for his conduct in office.”
In June, the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal of a separate $5 million (€4.3 million) verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation. In 2023, another jury awarded Carroll €4.3 million after concluding Trump subjected her to sexual abuse and defamation, a judgment which has since been paid.
The appeal was filed electronically and is expected to be formally docketed with the court later on Wednesday, July 29th, 2026.
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