E. Jean Carroll urged the U.S. Supreme Court to preserve an $83.3 million defamation judgment against President Donald J. Trump as the justices consider separate review petitions from Trump and the federal government.
Carroll’s lawyers submitted a consolidated opposition Oct. 30, according to entries in Supreme Court cases 26-141 and 26-142. The docket pages list neither a ruling nor a conference date.
The judgment followed a January 2024 jury trial over Trump’s June 2019 remarks. Jurors allocated $11 million to a reputation-repair program, $7.3 million to other compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages. The judgment was entered Feb. 8, 2024, and the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld it Sept. 8, 2025. The appeals court denied rehearing April 29, 2026.
Trump’s petition asks whether he forfeited presidential immunity by not specifically raising that protection in his initial response. It also asks whether his White House statements counted as official acts protected from liability and whether the federal government should replace him as defendant.
The government’s petition focuses on an attorney general’s certification that Trump’s remarks fell within his federal duties. It says the appeals court wrongly rejected that certification under the Westfall Act, which permits the United States to take a federal employee’s place in certain tort suits. Carroll’s lawyers say the request came too late. They argue that substitution would bring the case under the Federal Tort Claims Act, which bars defamation claims against the United States, and would require dismissal.
Carroll’s lawyers say Trump gave up the immunity argument by waiting to raise it and urge the justices not to “bail out this President.” In a separate case, the Supreme Court declined to review a $5 million Carroll verdict, denying Trump’s petition June 29, 2026, and his rehearing request Aug. 17. The dockets in the current cases do not list a date for the justices’ next action.
