Hi LG,
The immunity issue certainly can be confusing, as can the litigation between E. Jean Carroll and Donald Trump. The president argues that those two issues intersect to his benefit. I’ll explain his argument and where this is all headed next.
As a quick refresher, Carroll brought two civil cases against Trump. In one of them, a jury awarded her $5 million after finding him liable for sexually abusing her in 1996 and defaming her about it in 2022, when he was between his two presidential terms. The Supreme Court in June denied his petition to review the case, but he is pressing a long-shot bid to persuade the justices to reconsider. They could reject that request as soon as Monday morning.
The other case involves the $83.3 million judgment that you’re asking about. In that one, a separate jury awarded Carroll those damages for statements Trump made in 2019, during his first term. In his recently filed petition to the justices, his lawyers argue that the judgment in that case runs afoul of the Supreme Court’s 2024 presidential immunity ruling “in at least two ways.”
First, they say, Trump can’t be held liable for statements he made “to the White House press publicly defending his character and fitness for the Presidency.” Second, they say, the jury that awarded the judgment and the judge who upheld it both improperly considered Trump’s official presidential acts in doing so.
Read the rest of Jordan’s answer here.
