Trump Asks the Supreme Court to Void the $83 Million Carroll Verdict — and the Justice Department Asks to Take His Place as the Defendant

Trump asked the Supreme Court on July 28, 2026 to overturn the $83 million defamation judgment won by writer E. Jean Carroll, arguing that the Court's 2024 presidential immunity decision shields him. "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," his attorneys wrote. Separately and the same day, the Justice Department petitioned the Court to substitute the United States as the defendant, invoking a statute that gives federal employees immunity from civil damages for acts within the scope of their employment. "Absent this Court's intervention, the sitting President is facing nearly a hundred million dollars of personal liability for conduct that was well within the scope of his federal office," the department wrote.

If the justices allowed the swap, it would potentially clear the way to void the judgment entirely, because the federal government cannot be sued for defamation. Lower courts have denied similar substitution requests by the department.

A Manhattan jury awarded Carroll the money in 2024; an appeals panel upheld the $83.3 million verdict in September 2025 and denied rehearing in April 2026. In June the Supreme Court let stand a separate $5 million verdict finding Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll. Carroll's attorneys declined to comment.