President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to overturn his defamation loss to E. Jean Carroll, per reports.
According to Axios and the New York Times, Trump’s lawyers are asking the Supreme Court to overturn the $83.3 million loss to Carroll, the columnist who accused him of sexual assault.
Trump has denied Carroll’s claim that he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, but he lost Carroll’s defamation suit and an appeal in federal court. Now, his lawyers are arguing he’s entitled to presidential immunity because he was president when he made defamatory comments against Carroll, per reporting by Axios.
“This is the first case in our nation’s history in which a court has imposed damages liability on a president for his conduct in office,” Trump’s lawyers said in a court filing, according to reporting by the Times. Trump’s lawyers are arguing that the question of the president’s immunity is “straightforward on the undisputed factual record,” an argument an appeals court rejected, per the Times.
Trump’s lawyers are also arguing that if the ruling stands, it will constitutionally weaken the power of future presidents by exposing them to liability for their statements made while in office, per Axios.
Axios noted that this marks the second time in two months that the Supreme Court is dealing with Carroll-related litigation. In June, the Supreme Court declined to hear Trump’s appeal of a $5 million verdict separate from the $83.3 million loss. Trump’s team has also asked the Supreme Court to reconsider that judgment, Axios reported.