A federal appeals court in Manhattan, New York, once again denied a request by former President Trump to revisit his presidential immunity in a civil defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll.
Trump’s immunity defense denied
In the latest ruling, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan declined to hear Trump’s “immunity” defense claims, leaving his legal team with one option: to appeal to the Supreme Court.
A single-page ruling
The ruling was presented on one page, just like last month when Trump’s defense submitted the same request.
The date is set
The defamation trial brought by writer and columnist E. Jean Carroll against the former president is set to begin on January 15. Trump’s lawyers previously requested a 90-day pause in Carroll’s motion, citing, “lower courts are divested of jurisdiction for the pendency of an immunity-related appeal.”
The initial denial was in August
Trump’s presidential immunity claim was rejected by a federal judge in August, with the court asserting that the former president Trump “waived the defense of presidential immunity by failing to raise it” earlier in the case.
Legal argument
Trump argued that he commented on Carroll in 2019 while he was president. Still, the three-judge panel decided, “We hold that presidential immunity is waivable and that Defendant waived this defense.”
Carroll’s second trial against Trump
In May 2023, the jury found Trump liable for assault and liable for defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages. The new trial will focus solely on money damages, with Judge Lewis Kaplan, preceding the case, writing that presidential immunity is “not a ‘get out of damages liability free’ card.”
Trump’s presidential immunity claims in other cases
In D.C., Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled that Trump was not immune to the criminal charges in a case brought on DOJ’s Jack Smith and his team. The prosecution wrote that “Trump has been charged with four criminal counts related to accusations that he sought to subvert American democracy by trying to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joseph R. Biden Jr.”
Supreme Court’s decision
In both cases, the question of presidential immunity will likely have to be resolved by the U.S. Supreme Court. Politico’s senior legal affair reporter wrote on X, “The 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals in N.Y. has *denied* Donald Trump’s request to reconsider his immunity from E. Jean Carroll’s lawsuit. SCOTUS is the next stop.” Alina Habba, Trump’s attorney, also suggested that it will be up to SCOTUS to decide.
The September ruling led to the January trial
Judge Kaplan ruled in September that Trump’s comments about the former Elle columnist were made with “actual malice.” This was “partial summary judgment,” and Judge Kaplan ruled that the civil trial scheduled for January would only determine how much the former president should pay Carroll in monetary damages.
The assault is off the table
On January 6, 2024, the Judge said Trump’s legal team could not present an argument based on May’s jury conclusion that the former president assaulted Carroll in 1996 in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, near Trump Tower.
Carroll’s lawyers’ request
The lawyers for E. Jean Carroll said the “sting of the defamation was Mr. Trump’s assertions that Ms. Carroll’s charge of sexual abuse was an entirely untruthful fabrication and one made up for improper or even nefarious reasons.” Carroll is seeking $10 million in compensatory damages.
Trump spoke against Carroll numerous times after the May verdict
Briefly after the assault verdict, Trump went to CNN, where he said he had never met Carroll and even called her a “whack job.” The New Republic noted that Trump “shared stories from conservative outlets attacking” Carroll on Truth Social. He also mentioned her during the Iowa rally, also in early January 2024.
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