Trump owes E Jean Carroll $83M for sexual abuse and defamation. He’s hoping his DOJ can get him off the hook

After a losing streak in his attempts to toss out two multi-million dollar defamation verdicts, Donald Trump is hoping the Supreme Court — and the U.S. government — will bail him out.

Trump and the Department of Justice are asking the Supreme Court to grant the president “immunity” from having to pay nearly $90 million to E. Jean Carroll after two federal juries found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

It’s the second time the president has turned to the nation’s high court to toss out a verdict against him in his long-running legal battles with Carroll. The former Elle magazine writer was awarded $5 million in 2022 after a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse, and a separate grand jury awarded her $83.3 million for the president’s defamatory statements about her and the case.

Last week, a federal appeals court rejected Trump’s attempts to rehear his arguments against Carroll, who has accused the president of repeatedly defaming her by claiming he had never met her, labelling her a liar and denying that he had sexually assaulted her in a New York City department store in the 1990s.

On Wednesday, the Department of Justice announced plans to intervene — and is stepping in on the president’s behalf in his appeal to the Supreme Court.

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The nation’s high court is already reviewing whether to take up his case against the $5 million sexual abuse verdict, which the president’s lawyers claim was fueled by Carroll’s attempt to “maximize political injury to him and profit for herself.”

In November, the president’s legal team accused Carroll of concocting a story that “matches the plotline from an episode of one of admittedly her favorite TV shows, Law & Order.”

But in his challenge to the massive $83.3 million judgment against him, Trump took the extraordinary step of trying to replace himself as defendant with the U.S. government.

Last week, the New York-based appeals court declined to hear his arguments.

“Trump made multiple statements over many years accusing Carroll of lying for political and financial gain, and suggesting that Carroll was too unattractive for Trump to have sexually assaulted her,” Senior Circuit Judge Denny Chin wrote in a separate rejection of Trump’s arguments.

“As a result of Trump's statements, Carroll was harassed and humiliated, subjected to death threats, and feared for her physical safety for years,” Chin wrote. “And Trump showed no remorse, continuing his attacks against Carroll during and after two federal trials, and even proclaiming two days into the [first Carroll trial] that he would continue to defame her.”

Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said in a statement to The Independent last week that Carroll “is eager for this case, originally filed in 2019, to be over so that she can finally obtain justice.”

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The court’s rejection comes months after the court refused his attempt to claim presidential “immunity” from having to pay Carroll for statements he made while president.

In a monumental decision in 2024, the Supreme Court granted the president “immunity” from criminal prosecution for actions tied to his “official” duties, a ruling that derailed the criminal cases against him and shielded him from investigations.

But the Supreme Court flatly stated that “there is no immunity for unofficial acts” under the presidency.

A brief court filing signed by top Justice Department officials on Wednesday argues there is “good cause” to pause the court’s ruling until the Supreme Court can decide whether the U.S. government can step into the case and argue Trump’s immunity claims on his behalf.

In a separate filing, Trump asked the appeals court to freeze its ruling until the nation’s high court weighs in.

The appeals court ruling striking down Trump’s immunity claims could “irreparably weaken presidential immunity and thus the presidency itself,” his attorneys wrote Wednesday.

If the court doesn’t act, the president “may immediately be required to bear the burdens of proceedings to execute on the judgment of $83.3 million” that was awarded to Carroll and “will suffer ongoing irreparable harm due to violation of his right to immunity from this defamation suit for his official statements as President of the United States of America,” they argued.

The Carroll verdicts added to a tidal wave of litigation against the president, including criminal convictions for falsifying business records and a massive fraud judgment putting him on the hook for nearly half a billion dollars.

He avoided any consequences after his conviction in the criminal case in Manhattan, and he has successfully appealed financial penalties in the fraud judgment. Two sweeping federal indictments over his attempts to overturn election results and withhold classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate were also dismissed after he won back the presidency.

While he directs Justice Department officials to prosecute officials who once investigated him, the president is also pushing state and federal courts to overturn a jury’s verdict in the hush money trial, which found that the president illegally used his business to cover up payments to an adult film star to bury politically embarrassing stories about him.

Trump is also continuing to appeal a blockbuster fraud ruling after a trial determined the president grossly inflated his net worth and assets to attract favorable financing terms to boost his brand-building real estate empire.

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