Former US President Donald Trump cannot invoke presidential immunity in a defamation lawsuit filed against him by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape, the US Court of Appeals ruled today.
The US Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a federal judge’s decision to reject Trump’s request for immunity, Reuters reported.
In the lawsuit, Carol sought at least $10 million in damages from Trump for statements he made in June 2019 while he was president of the United States, after she first publicly accused him of raping her in a dressing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.
Trump has denied knowing Carroll, said she wasn’t his “type” and that she made up the rape claim to promote her memoir.
Carol, who worked as a columnist for “El” magazine, accused him of rape in November 2019.
In May 2023, a jury rejected that claim, but found him guilty of sexual assault and defamation, and the author was awarded five million dollars in damages.
Trump then sued Carroll for defamation, but lost that process in early August.
And then Carol filed another lawsuit against Trump, because he insulted her on CNN after the first verdict.
Carroll has already won one civil trial against Trump. In May, a jury in a second lawsuit awarded her $5 million for sexual assault and defamation after Trump last October again denied her accusations. Trump is appealing that verdict.
On Sept. 6, Kaplan ruled that the jury’s findings in May applied to Carroll’s first lawsuit, making Trump’s denial defamatory. That left for trial only the issue of how much money Trump should pay Carroll in damages.
