Trump Loses Bid to Overturn $83M Defamation Award

President Trump has lost another significant legal battle to writer E. Jean Carroll: A federal appeals court on Monday upheld an $83 million defamation verdict against the president, reports the New York Times. The decision—stemming from her allegations that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store decades ago—rejected Trump's claim of presidential immunity and affirmed a jury's finding that he acted with malice.

"The jury's duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case," the three-judge panel wrote in its unanimous opinion, per Reuters. The majority of the damages—$65 million—were punitive, reflecting the jury's conclusion that Trump acted maliciously. Trump's legal team had argued the penalty was excessive, per CNBC.

This court ruling follows an earlier unanimous decision from another Second Circuit panel in December, which upheld a separate $5 million civil verdict in Carroll's favor. That case found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and for making defamatory statements about her after leaving office. Trump's legal options are narrowing, though his lawyers have signaled they will turn next to the Supreme Court.