The Department of Justice (DOJ) under President Trump will now appeal to the Supreme Court regarding the $83.3 million defamation suit awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll.
The Trump administration reportedly wants to “invoke a law that allows the federal government to step in when one of its employees stares down a lawsuit over something within the scope of their job,” per The Hill. Should the appeal succeed, the president would no longer be required to pay the damages.
“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,” the DOJ wrote in its filing to the Supreme Court.
The justices will consider hearing the case after returning from summer recess.
In 2024, prior to the presidential election, a jury awarded writer E. Jean Carroll $83 million in damages after she argued he defamed her with statements he made in refuting her allegations of him sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the early-1990s. The president has repeatedly denied the allegations and has “tried unsuccessfully to substitute the United States as a defendant and to raise a claim of presidential immunity,” per ABC News.
A separate jury in an earlier trial awarded Carroll $5 million in damages after holding Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse. The 2nd Circuit previously rejected each of Trump’s appellate efforts in that case.
In April of this year, the 2nd U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that the president had raised his arguments too late.
“The fact of the matter is that no other defendant would be permitted to move to substitute the United States in his place, fifteen months after trial and the entry of judgment against him,” Judge Denny Chin wrote. “The Court appropriately declined to convene en banc to revisit this issue.”
The Supreme Court last month declined to take Trump’s appeal regarding Carroll’s first defamation lawsuit against him, for which she was awarded $5 million. Those funds have been transferred to Carroll’s law firm. The second defamation case has raised a barrage of legal questions regarding statements made by Trump as president.
“[The DOJ] hopes to invoke a 1988 law called the Westfall Act. Aimed at protecting federal employees, the law allows the Justice Department to substitute itself as the defendant when a lawsuit concerns something a government employee did in the scope of their jobs,” noted The Hill.
