A federal appeals court rejected Donald Trump's bid to have his entire legal team reconsider his challenge to an $83 million defamation verdict handed down by a jury in 2024. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12 to deny Trump's request for a full bench rehearing, clearing a path for the case to potentially reach the Supreme Court.
Trump's lawyers had asked the court to allow the United States government to replace Trump as the defendant and to revive arguments about presidential immunity. The court's majority found no merit in either request. Judge Denny Chin, writing in a 34-page opinion supporting the decision, noted the unusual nature of Trump's maneuver. "No other defendant would be permitted to move to substitute the United States in his place, fifteen months after trial and the entry of judgment against him," Chin wrote.
The case stems from Trump's repeated denials that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996. When Carroll went public with her accusation in 2019, Trump called her a liar and suggested she fabricated the story to boost sales for her book. He labeled the claims a hoax and a con job. A jury later found those statements defamatory and awarded Carroll $83 million in damages.
A three-judge panel of the same appeals court had already rejected Trump's first appeal, which centered on presidential immunity claims, in September. The latest decision effectively closes that door at the appellate level unless the Supreme Court intervenes.
Trump's legal team pledged to continue fighting. A spokesman called the ruling "Liberal Lawfare" and accused the justice system of being weaponized against the president. The statement invoked claims that Carroll based her accusations on Trump's official acts and that the Department of Justice had taken over the defense as a matter of legal obligation.
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed the court's denial. "E. Jean Carroll is eager for this case, originally filed in 2019, to be over so that she can finally obtain justice," Kaplan said in a statement.
One dissenting judge, Steven J. Menashi, argued the court should have granted the full hearing. In a 54-page dissent, Menashi contended the case raised significant questions about the scope of presidential immunity and duties that warranted fresh consideration in light of Supreme Court precedent.
The ruling applies to Carroll's first lawsuit against Trump. A second defamation suit she filed resulted in an additional $5 million judgment against Trump under a New York law that temporarily reopened the statute of limitations for sexual abuse claims. Trump filed an appeal to the Supreme Court in November in that second case after a federal appeals court tossed out his challenge in June.
Author Sarah Mitchell: "The court's refusal to reconsider sends a clear message that Trump's end-run around the original verdict will not fly at the appellate level, making a Supreme Court showdown increasingly likely."
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