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Immunity bid at SCOTUS
President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to block an $83.3 million defamation verdict in his dispute with magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, arguing that as president he has immunity from such lawsuits.
Trump’s attorneys said the filing is “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,” and they argued the Second Circuit “never even decided whether Presidential immunity applies.”
The appeal has not yet been docketed with the Supreme Court and relies on the 2024 decision that granted the president broad immunity for actions taken while in office.
Trump also asked the court to reconsider whether the U.S. government should be the defendant in the case instead of the president, and the Department of Justice said it intended to intervene under the Westfall Act.
Carroll’s legal team declined to comment on the latest filing, while Trump denied wrongdoing in both cases described in the reporting.
Second Circuit and filings
The Supreme Court appeal comes after a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s request to rehear his appeal in April, and the Second Circuit panel affirmed the $83.3 million damages award.
In the CNN account, Trump told the justices the appeals court decision in Carroll’s favor would “cause significant damage, not only to this president and future presidents” but also the nation.
The USA Today report says the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found the $83.3 million judgment was reasonable “in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case.”
USA Today also reported that the appeals court said the starting point of its review “is the now-indisputable fact that a jury found in (the other case) that Trump sexually abused Carroll in 1996,” and that the record supported a finding that the “degree of reprehensibility” was “remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.”
CNN further reported that the appeals court found Trump had previously waived any claim of presidential immunity and that the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision did not alter that view.
Westfall Act and next steps
The Department of Justice said it intended to intervene to take over the case under the Westfall Act, which protects individual federal officials from lawsuits for actions performed in the course of official duties.
CNN reported that “Normally, that might put federal taxpayers on the hook for an employee’s actions,” but in this case it would “almost certainly mean the end of Carroll’s defamation case.”
CNN also said the Supreme Court is not in session over the summer, so it will not consider Trump’s appeal until the fall, and if it agrees to hear the case, it would not likely hand down a decision until next June.
Fox News reported that Trump is being represented by Robert J. Giuffra of Sullivan and Cromwell and Michael C. Martinich-Sauter of the James Otis Law Group, while a representative for Carroll’s legal team declined to comment.
The reporting also ties the defamation appeal to a broader legal battle in which Trump is continuing litigation in a separate $5 million case involving Carroll, after the Supreme Court declined to take up a related petition.
