Trump loses bid to overturn $83.3M E. Jean Carroll defamation judgment

NEW YORK — A federal appeals court on Monday upheld an $83.3 million judgment against President Donald Trump for defaming the writer E. Jean Carroll, rejecting the president’s argument that he should have been protected by presidential immunity.

The judgment, issued by a federal jury in 2024, stemmed from comments Trump made during his first presidential term in response to Carroll’s allegation that Trump raped her in the 1990s. Trump repeatedly denigrated Carroll, claimed he had never met her and said Carroll’s memoir — in which she discussed the rape allegation — “should be sold in the fiction section.”