A US appeals court on Monday upheld a jury’s decision ordering President Donald Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to author E. Jean Carroll, whom he was previously found liable for sexually assaulting.

 

The penalty, issued in January 2024, included $65 million in punitive damages, $7.3 million in compensatory damages, and $11 million for an online campaign to repair Carroll’s reputation. The award far exceeded the more than $10 million Carroll had initially sought.

 

In its ruling, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit said the damages were reasonable given Trump’s repeated and malicious attacks against Carroll.

 

“We hold that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s duly rendered damages awards were reasonable in light of the extraordinary and egregious facts of this case,” the court stated.

 

Carroll, 81, accused Trump of defaming her in 2019, after she went public with allegations that he had sexually assaulted her in a department store dressing room in 1996. Trump denied the claim, saying she was “not my type.”

 

Jurors were shown Trump’s 2022 deposition, during which he confused a photo of Carroll with that of his ex-wife, Marla Maples—undermining his “not my type” defense.

 

In a separate case in 2023, another federal jury found Trump liable for sexual assault and defamation after he again called Carroll’s allegations a “con job.”

 

The appeals court noted that the jury was justified in imposing a substantial financial penalty because Trump was unlikely to stop defaming Carroll otherwise.

 

Trump did not attend the trial, but used the case to generate media attention and bolster his campaign narrative of being politically persecuted as he seeks a return to the White House.