Trump’s Bid for Immunity in Carroll Defamation Suit Denied

According to a U.S. appeals court ruling on Wednesday, former President Donald Trump cannot claim presidential immunity from a defamation lawsuit filed by writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of rape. This decision marks another legal setback for Trump.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld a federal judge’s decision to reject Trump’s claim of immunity, stating that Trump had waited too long to raise it as a defense.

Trump’s lawyer in the case, Alina Habba, called the ruling “fundamentally flawed” and said Trump will seek “immediate review” from the Supreme Court.

Carroll sought at least $10 million in damages from Trump for his comments in June 2019, when he denied knowing her and claimed she fabricated the rape claim to promote her upcoming memoir.

Carroll sued in November 2019, but Trump waited until December 2022 before asserting that absolute presidential immunity shielded him from her lawsuit.

In June, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan refused to let Trump raise an immunity defense, citing the delay and the public interest in accountability. The 2nd Circuit on Wednesday said those decisions were correct.

“A three-year-delay is more than enough, under our precedents, to qualify as ‘undue,'” a three-judge panel wrote in its opinion.

Trump’s appeal was heard on an expedited basis, with a scheduled Jan. 16 trial date. He has pursued a similar immunity defense in his federal criminal case in Washington.

Carroll has already won one civil trial against Trump, with a jury awarding her $5 million for sexual assault and defamation. Trump is appealing that verdict. On Sept. 6, Kaplan ruled that the jury’s findings applied to Carroll’s first lawsuit, leaving only the issue of damages for trial.

“We are pleased that the Second Circuit affirmed Judge Kaplan’s rulings and that we can now move forward with trial,” Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said in a statement.

Trump is currently the front-runner for the Republican nomination to challenge Democrat President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, despite facing four federal and state criminal indictments. Trump has pleaded not guilty in those cases.