Background: Former President Donald Trump is seen on January 11, 2024 outside the New York State Supreme Courthouse on the day of closing arguments during his civil business fraud trial case in New York City (File Photo by: zz/Andrea Renault/STAR MAX/IPx 2024 1/11/24). Inset: Left: E. Jean Carroll arrives at Manhattan federal court, Tuesday, May 9, 2023, in New York (AP, John Minchillo).
Writer E. Jean Carroll is urging a federal appeals court to uphold the multimillion dollar defamation judgment owed to her by Donald Trump after he argued that the U.S. Supreme Court’s sweeping presidential immunity ruling shields him from criminal prosecution as well as civil liability.
In a 71-page brief filed Monday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Carroll asserted that a U.S. president “is not above the law,” stating that such a tenant is a “fundamental principal of our democracy” that was further reiterated by the Supreme Court’s presidential immunity decision.
Trump in September filed court documents characterizing the case — as well as Carroll’s other case against him — as a “miscarriage of justice” that had been “perpetrated for political purposes and in seeking unjust pecuniary gain,” and further claimed that he was immune from the $83.3 million judgment against him.
“First, Presidential immunity shields from liability President Trump’s public statements issued in his official capacity through official White House channels,” the September filing from Trump’s attorney stated. “The Supreme Court’s recent decision in Trump v. United States, contravenes this Court’s prior holding that Presidential immunity may be forfeited through inadvertence or inaction. Presidential immunity forecloses any liability here and requires the complete dismissal of all claims.”
Carroll’s attorney pushed back hard on the president’s assertions, particularly his claim that presidential immunity should shield him from the civil judgment.
