President Trump lost to E. Jean Carroll again.
A federal appeals court has rejected the president’s appeal of the initial $83.3 million verdict that found him guilty of defaming Carroll in 2019 after she accused him of rape.
A three-judge panel on Monday ruled unanimously in favor of Carroll, rejecting Trump’s presidential immunity arguments in the process.
Since the initial ruling last year, the amount Trump owes Carroll has increased, thanks to a 9 percent annual interest rate in New York, where the case was decided.
Carroll accused Trump of raping her in the Manhattan Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s. She sued him twice for defamation: first in 2019, when he said she made up the rape allegation to promote her book, and again in November of 2022 for the countless social media posts he made about her. Those posts haven’t stopped. Trump called Carroll out again on Memorial Day last year, writing on Truth Social:
Happy Memorial Day to All, including the Human Scum that is working so hard to destroy our Once Great Country, & to the Radical Left, Trump Hating Federal Judge in New York that presided over, get this, TWO separate trials, that awarded a woman, who I never met before (a quick handshake at a celebrity event, 25 years ago, doesn’t count!), 91 MILLION DOLLARS for “DEFAMATION.” She didn’t know when the so-called event took place – sometime in the 1990’s – never filed a police report, didn’t have to produce the “dress” that she threatened me with (it showed negative!), & sung my praises in the first half of her CNN Interview with Alison Cooper, but changed her tune in the second half – Gee, I wonder why (UNDER APPEAL!)? The Rape charge was dropped by a jury!
The vast majority of the verdict money—$65 million—was specifically for punitive damages, as the jury found that the president acted with malice towards Carroll.
While Trump’s team seems to be surrendering on the defamation charges, they have indicated that they intend to challenge the $5 million in damages Carroll received in a separate defamation case in which Trump was also found liable of sexually abusing Carroll.
The post Trump Loses to E. Jean Carroll Again as His Debt Piles Up appeared first on New Republic.
