A federal court in Manhattan declined to throw out a case that found President Donald Trump owes $83.3 million over comments he made disputing the veracity of sexual assault claims by writer E. Jean Carroll.

The Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which generally looks at technical issues in a case instead of the underlying merits, said in the decision issued on Sept. 8 that presidential immunity does not protect Trump, and a lower court did not err in how it handled the case.

The decision is the latest in a yearslong legal battle after Carroll said in 2019 that Trump sexually assaulted her at a New York City department store in 1996, and Trump fired back with allegations that she was making up the story to sell her book.

The ruling means Trump remains on the hook for nearly $90 million in damages against Carroll – $83.3 million for damaging Carroll’s reputation when he denied her claim, and $5 million for defamation and sexual abuse. His appeals of both sums of money failed this year.

Lawyers for Carroll and Trump did not immediately provide comment for this story.

In his appeal of the $83.3 million sum that the court shot down on Sept. 8, Trump argued that a 2024 Supreme Court decision granting presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution also applied in this case.

The court said the argument did not apply because Trump failed to bring up the issue earlier in the court process. Trump also challenged procedural issues with the trial, but the appeals court was unpersuaded.

Trump first denied Carroll’s accusation in June 2019, during his first term as president, telling a reporter in a lengthy exchange on the White House lawn that Carroll was "not my type" and that she concocted the story to sell her memoir "What Do We Need Men For?" Carroll sued him months later, winning the $83.3 million judgment.

Trump repeated the denial in a 2022 social media post, when he was not president and the first case was ongoing. Carroll then sued Trump again under a special window of time that New York granted to sexual abuse survivors, and in 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse against Carroll. This resulted in the $5 million verdict.

Contributing: Reuters

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Appeals court won't throw out E. Jean Carroll case for presidential immunity

Reporting by Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect