Trump Civil Cases: Fraud, Defamation, and January 6

The major civil cases involving Donald Trump as of mid-2026 fall into three active tracks: the two E. Jean Carroll defamation and sexual abuse judgments totaling more than $100 million, the New York attorney general’s civil fraud case now before the state’s highest court, and consolidated damages suits filed by members of Congress and Capitol Police officers over the January 6 attack. Each has moved past its initial trial or ruling and is now working through appeals or pretrial motions, and each raises a different question about how far a president can be held personally liable in civil court.

The E. Jean Carroll Judgments

Writer E. Jean Carroll has won two separate civil verdicts against Trump. In May 2023, a Manhattan federal jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million.¹ In a second trial in early 2024, addressing additional defamatory statements Trump made while president, a jury awarded her $83.3 million.²

Both verdicts have been affirmed on appeal. The Second Circuit upheld the $5 million judgment, and Trump asked the Supreme Court in November 2025 to take up the case. As of late June 2026, the Court had rescheduled its decision on whether to hear the appeal at least fifteen times without acting. The Second Circuit also affirmed the $83 million verdict, and the full court declined to rehear it in late April 2026. Trump’s lawyers said in early June 2026 that they planned a Supreme Court petition within a month.³

With interest, Trump owes Carroll more than $100 million across the two cases.³ He posted a bond covering the $83.3 million judgment while the appeal continues.⁴ A central legal argument in the larger case is Trump’s contention that because the statements were made from the White House, the federal government should be substituted as the defendant.¹

A separate development has complicated the picture. In May 2026, reports emerged that the Justice Department had opened a criminal investigation into Carroll, examining whether she committed perjury in a 2022 deposition when she said no one else was funding her legal fees; it later became public that a nonprofit financed by billionaire Reid Hoffman had supported the litigation. Andrew Boutros, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, then said publicly that his office “has not opened — and has never opened — a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll,” leaving the probe’s status unclear.⁵ The New York Times described the inquiry as fitting a broader pattern of Justice Department scrutiny of Trump’s perceived adversaries.⁶

The New York Civil Fraud Case

New York Attorney General Letitia James sued Trump, his adult sons Donald Jr. and Eric, and the Trump Organization in September 2022, alleging a decade of inflated real estate valuations used to obtain favorable loans and deflated valuations used for tax benefits. The complaint identified more than 200 alleged instances of fraud involving properties including Mar-a-Lago, Trump Tower, and the Trump hotel in Washington, D.C.⁷

Following an eleven-week bench trial, Justice Arthur Engoron ruled in February 2024 that the defendants had committed fraud. He ordered them to pay more than $450 million, including $363.8 million in disgorgement plus pre-judgment interest, barred Trump from serving as an officer or director of any New York corporation for three years, imposed two-year bans on Donald Jr. and Eric, and required an independent compliance director inside the Trump Organization.⁸ Trump posted a $175 million bond to halt enforcement during his appeal.⁹

In August 2025, a five-judge panel of New York’s Appellate Division threw out the financial penalty in its entirety. By then the disgorgement figure with interest had grown to more than $515 million, and the panel ruled that it was “an excessive fine that violates the Eighth Amendment of the United States Constitution.” The panel upheld the underlying finding of fraud, however, and left in place the injunctive relief restricting Trump’s ability to conduct business in New York, calling those restrictions “well crafted.”¹⁰

Both sides then took the case to the New York Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. Trump’s lawyers filed a 119-page brief in April 2026 seeking to reverse the fraud finding altogether and to eliminate the corporate leadership bans, calling the case “legally unsound.”¹¹ James’s brief seeking to reinstate the monetary penalty was due June 23, 2026.¹² No oral arguments have been scheduled.

The January 6 Damages Suits

Members of Congress and Capitol Police officers have sued Trump in a set of consolidated federal cases seeking damages for the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol. The lead consolidated litigation, tied to Thompson v. Trump and Lee v. Trump, alleges that Trump conspired to prevent the certification of electoral votes and incited the violence that injured the plaintiffs.¹³

Trump moved to dismiss on the ground that his conduct was protected as official presidential action. In December 2023, the D.C. Circuit rejected that theory, holding that “when a first-term President opts to seek a second term, his campaign to win re-election is not an official presidential act.”¹⁴ On March 31, 2026, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta denied most of Trump’s motion for summary judgment, finding that the rally speech at the Ellipse was “political in nature” and that Trump “has not shown that the Speech reasonably can be understood as falling within the outer perimeter of his Presidential duties.”¹³ A civil trial in Washington, D.C., could occur as early as spring or summer 2028.¹⁵

Other Personal Civil Cases

Several other civil cases against Trump personally have been resolved or remain in narrower postures:

Summer Zervos, a former Apprentice contestant, sued Trump for defamation after he denied her allegations of sexual misconduct. She dropped the suit in November 2021.¹⁶
Mary Trump, the president’s niece, alleged she was defrauded out of millions in an inheritance dispute. A trial court dismissed the case in November 2022, and a New York appeals court upheld the dismissal in June 2023.¹⁷
The D.C. Attorney General alleged that Trump-affiliated entities used inaugural funds to enrich the family business. That case settled for $750,000 in May 2022.¹⁶
Six protesters who alleged assault by Trump’s security guards outside Trump Tower in 2015 settled with the defendants in November 2022 on undisclosed terms.¹⁶
Doe v. The Trump Corporation, a class action by anonymous plaintiffs who allege the Trump family scammed investors, remains pending on appeal after a district court denied the defense motion to send the case to arbitration.¹⁶
In an earlier matter, a New York judge ordered Trump to pay $2 million for misuse of Trump Foundation charitable assets, and the foundation was dissolved.⁷

How Presidential Immunity Shapes These Cases

Two Supreme Court decisions set the framework for civil suits against Trump. In Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1982), the Court held that a president has absolute immunity from civil damages for actions within the “outer perimeter” of official duties.¹⁸ In Clinton v. Jones (1997), the Court held that a sitting president is not immune from civil suits based on conduct that occurred before taking office, and that such cases need not be paused until the president leaves the White House.¹⁹

Those precedents run through every active case. In the Carroll litigation, Trump argues the defamatory statements were made in his official capacity, which would require substituting the United States as the defendant. In the January 6 suits, courts at the district and circuit levels have rejected the argument that campaigning for re-election qualifies as official presidential conduct. The fraud case, by contrast, concerns pre-presidency business activity and has proceeded without a serious immunity defense.

Lawsuits Against the Trump Administration

A separate and much larger body of litigation targets policies of Trump’s second administration rather than Trump personally. These are suits against federal agencies and officials, not against Trump as an individual defendant, and any liability or remedy runs against the government. Just Security tracks 803 such lawsuits as of mid-2026; plaintiffs have won 262 times, including 64 permanent blocks and 137 temporary blocks of government action, while the government has won 126 cases and 360 remain pending.²⁰

The subject matter spans birthright citizenship (argued before the Supreme Court in April 2026 and awaiting decision),²¹ the authority of the Department of Government Efficiency, mass federal firings, anti-DEI grant conditions, and voter registration rules.²² In February 2026, the Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in V.O.S. Selections v. Trump, in an opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not authorize the president to impose tariffs.²³ A federal court also permanently struck down a proof-of-citizenship voter registration requirement in November 2025 in litigation brought by the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.²⁴

1
SCOTUSblog. Court Puts Off Deciding Whether to Consider $5 Million Verdict Against Trump Yet Again
2
AP News. Court Upholds E. Jean Carroll’s $83.3M Defamation Judgment Against Trump
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CNN. Supreme Court E. Jean Carroll Donald Trump Appeal
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PBS NewsHour. Impossible for Trump to Post Bond Covering $454 Million, Trump’s Lawyers Say
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CNN. Justice Department Launched E. Jean Carroll Investigation
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New York Times. Criminal Inquiry E. Jean Carroll Trump Accusations
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NBC New York. Donald Trump Sued for Fraud by NY Attorney General
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New York Attorney General. Attorney General James Wins Landmark Victory in Case Against Donald Trump
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CNN. Trump Civil Trial Trump Organization Appeal
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PBS NewsHour. Trump’s Massive Civil Fraud Penalty for Exaggerating Financial Statements Is Thrown Out by Appeals Court
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The Hill. Trump Asks NY Court to Toss Remnants of ‘Legally Unsound’ Fraud Case
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Courthouse News. Trump Asks New York’s Top Court to Toss Civil Fraud Judgment
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NAACP. January 6th Civil Case Against Trump Advances
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ABC News. DC Appeals Court Rules Trump Can Be Sued for Inciting Jan. 6
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Cohen Milstein. Judge Deals Trump Setback in Civil Suits Over Capitol Riot
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Just Security. Litigation Tracker: Pending Criminal and Civil Cases Against Donald Trump
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Good Morning America. Trump’s Niece Mary Trump Loses Effort to Revive Lawsuit
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Congress.gov. Presidential Immunity – Civil and Criminal Suits
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FindLaw. Presidential Immunity to Criminal and Civil Suits
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Just Security. Tracker: Litigation and Legal Challenges to the Trump Administration
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SCOTUSblog. Trump v. Barbara
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AP News. Trump Executive Order Lawsuit Tracker
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SCOTUSblog. A Breakdown of the Court’s Tariff Decision
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NAACP LDF. LDF Trump Lawsuit Tracker