Trump Will Ask Supreme Court for Immunity in Defamation Case

His lawyers argued in a filing that paying $83 million to E. Jean Carroll would cause irreparable damage.

E. Jean Carroll, Roberta Kaplan

Former advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, right, leaves federal court with her lawyer Roberta Kaplan, in April 2023. A jury ordered Trump to pay $83 million to Carroll for his defamatory statements after she accused him of sexual assault. Bebeto Matthews/AP

President Donald Trump plans to ask the Supreme Court to grant him presidential immunity from writer E. Jean Carroll’s defamation lawsuit.

Trump asked the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in New York to allow him to bring the case to the Supreme Court, according to a Tuesday court filing. The president argued he would suffer irreparable damage if he had to pay Carroll the $83.3 million a civil jury ordered him to pay in the suit, which dealt with the social media attacks and public comments he made about Carroll after she accused him of sexual assault.

“If execution on the judgment were allowed, it is very unlikely that any money could be recovered because Carroll has publicly said that she plans to give away any money that she receives from this lawsuit,” Trump’s personal attorney Justin Smith wrote to the court.