JUST IN: Appeals Court Reveals Final Decision On E. Jean Carroll Verdict

A federal appeals court has upheld a decision against President Donald Trump in the E. Jean Carroll case, declining to toss a suit brought by the woman who alleged she was sexually assaulted in a dressing room in the mid-1990s.

Trump, who has sought to overturn the verdict on several grounds, saw the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals refuse to overturn Carroll’s judgment on civil battery and defamation on Monday, a blow to the president that he had hoped to avoid.

In his appeal, Trump leaned heavily on a 2024 U.S. Supreme Court decision, which concluded that presidents are immune from official acts taken while in office, thereby rendering him immune from the suit. The court’s rejection of that argument followed an earlier rejection by a lower court, as reported by Reuters.

Carroll previously received an $83.3 million judgment against Trump following her 2019 case alleging that he sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room.

A jury did not find Trump guilty of rape but did find him guilty of defamation and battery. Trump has denied ever meeting Carroll and dismissed her lawsuit as frivolous, Just The News reported.

“This woman is not my type!” Trump wrote in 2022 about the former fashion magazine writer.

“Trump has failed to identify any grounds that would warrant reconsidering our prior holding on presidential immunity. We also conclude that the district court did not err in any of the challenged rulings and that the jury’s damages awards are fair and reasonable,” the opinion said.

Trump’s 2022 social media post resulted in a $5 million judgment, but the largest portion — $65 million — consists of punitive damages after a jury found Trump acted with malice, the NYT reported.

Carroll won her original suit against Trump in 2023, after he had left office.

The decision came a week after Trump’s lawyers announced their intention to petition the Supreme Court to hear a jury verdict in a separate case brought by Carroll, which resulted in a $5 million award stemming from Trump’s 2022 tweet.

The White House referred NBC News to Trump’s personal lawyer for comment.

Trump first denied Carroll’s accusation while in office, telling a reporter in 2019 she is “not my type” and suggested the allegation came to promote her memoir, titled “What Do We Need Men For?”

Mixed messaging over the decision has resulted in defamation claims brought by Trump, as well. ABC News reached a $15 million settlement with Trump following George Stephanopoulos falsely claiming Trump had been found guilty of rape multiple times during an interview.