Reports: Trump asks Supreme Court to overturn $83.3M Carroll judgment

July 29 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump has reportedly asked the Supreme Court to overturn the $83.3 million judgment awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll after a jury found he defamed her by denying sexually abusing her in the 1990s.

Trump has been fighting the judgment since Carroll won her defamation case against him in 2024.

According to copies of the filing obtained by CNN, Axios and NBC News, Trump argues that he should not have to pay, citing the Supreme Court's 2024 ruling granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts.

"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 said in the filing.

"Yet, in upholding the exorbitant $83.3 million defamation judgment here, the Second Circuit never even decided whether presidential immunity applies."

Carroll accused Trump of sexual assault in her 2019 memoir. She said he abused her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s.

Trump, who denies the allegations, accused her of making up the abuse claim to sell books.

Carroll filed the defamation case in November 2019, followed by a second lawsuit under New York's Adult Survivors Act in 2022.

She was awarded $5 million in the second case, which was tried first. After Trump's repeated efforts to overturn the judgement, the court released the money to Carroll earlier this month.

In the first case, which was tried second, Carroll was awarded $83.3 million, which Trump has challenged since. After lower courts repeatedly rejected his appeals, he asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to overturn the judgment.

In the Supreme Court filing, Trump's lawyers are also seeking to substitute the United States government as the defendant -- a move that other courts have previously rejected.

"Here, the president of the United States has been ordered to pay nearly $100 million in damages ... for issuing a press release and answering reporters' questions, from the White House, defending against attacks on his fitness for office," his lawyers said.

Relying on the argument that his comments about Carroll were officials acts, Trump's lawyers said the "threat of even a single damages judgement ... will render all Presidents 'unable to boldly and fearlessly carry out [their] duties for feat that [they] may be next," the filing said.

Last month, the Supreme Court had declined to hear his appeal of the $5 million judgment.