A federal appeals court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a jury verdict ordering him to pay $83.3 million for defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
The ruling decision from a trio of judges on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld that verdict, which Trump argued was both excessive and invalid following a Supreme Court decision that expanded his presidential immunity.
The panel held that Trump “has failed to identify any grounds that would warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity.”
The judges also ruled that a lower federal court “did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable.”
The decision came less than a week after Trump’s lawyers signaled they will soon ask the Supreme Court to overturn a jury verdict in a second civil case Carroll had filed against the president, for which she has been awarded $5 million.
