A U.S. appeals court upheld Monday (September 8, 2025) a jury's $83.3 million penalty against President Donald Trump for defaming author E. Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted.
The January 2024 order consisted of $65 million in punitive damages after the jury found Mr. Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Ms. Carroll, $7.3 million in compensatory damages and $11 million to pay for an online campaign to repair Ms. Carroll's reputation.
The civil order, which prompted an audible gasp in the federal court, far exceeded the more than $10 million in damages for defamation that Ms. Carroll had sought.
Mr. Trump — whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York — used his Truth Social platform at the time to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called "an extremely abusive individual."
‘Substantial financial penalty’
