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- cross-posted to:
- [email protected]
Donald Trump on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to once again step into his messy legal brawl with magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll, appealing an $83.3 million jury verdict for defamation on the grounds that, as president, he is immune from the litigation.
The appeal, which has not yet been docketed at the high court, relies heavily on the court’s 2024 decision granting the president wide immunity for actions taken in office.
My guess is actually that they refuse to take the case, allowing the original ~$80M judgement to stand.
Their original ruling was that he can’t be sued for actions taken in office, as long as he could argue that the actions were officially a presidential action. Basically, people can’t sue the POTUS personally for things that the POTUS does officially as president. It creates a barrier between “official actions” and “personal actions”, but gives broad discretion to be able to argue that an action is official. The ruling didn’t define what an official action is, and essentially handed that power to the POTUS.
But here’s the important part: Trump didn’t rape Carroll while in office, (it happened in 1995), so it’s not covered under that existing ruling. And even if he did, the SCOTUS isn’t going to want “I raped a woman as an official presidential act” on their record.
This is about the defaming portion, not the rape itself.
He defamed her while in office.
They dont have to worry about saying rape is an official act, only defamation