The US Supreme Court on Monday again rejected President Donald Trump’s effort to overturn a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, closing off his last available avenue of appeal in the closely watched civil case.
The court denied Trump’s petition for rehearing without comment, a week after it initially declined to hear his appeal of the verdict. Trump’s lawyers had asked the justices to reconsider, arguing that the trial judge made significant evidentiary errors that tainted the jury’s findings. The denial means the $5 million judgment, which includes damages for both the sexual abuse finding and subsequent defamation, now stands permanently.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist for Elle magazine, accused Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. Trump denied the allegations and called her claims a hoax. A jury found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation in May 2023, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages. A separate trial in January 2024 resulted in an additional $83.3 million judgment for defamation, and that case is also pending before the Supreme Court on a separate track.
Trump’s Legal Arguments
Trump’s attorneys argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over both trials, made “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings that prejudiced the jury. They objected in particular to Kaplan’s decision to allow two other women to testify that Trump had committed similar acts against them in the 1970s and 2005. Trump’s lawyers said this testimony was irrelevant to the Carroll case and improperly influenced jurors. A three-judge appellate panel upheld the verdict in December 2024, rejecting those arguments, and the full Second Circuit Court of Appeals declined to rehear the case.
Trump, posting on Truth Social after the initial denial in June, called the case “Fake” and said he would “continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case.” He added that the lawsuit “is really against the United States of America.” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said the latest ruling “ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions” and that the verdict “will stand.”
Broader Legal Landscape
The Carroll cases represent just one front in a sprawling legal battles Trump faces. The $83.3 million defamation verdict from the second trial remains under review by the Supreme Court, which could take up that case in its next term beginning in October. Meanwhile, Trump’s new attorney general, Todd Blanche, has faced scrutiny over the Justice Department’s independence. Blanche, who served as Trump’s personal criminal defense lawyer before being elevated to the role, told senators at his confirmation hearing that there is “a misnomer about President Trump, which is that he wakes up in the morning, calls me up and says, ‘Todd, go prosecute this.'”
The Supreme Court’s refusal to revisit the Carroll verdict comes at a moment when the court is also weighing other high-stakes disputes involving the Trump administration, including challenges to executive orders on mail-in voting and birthright citizenship. The justices are also considering the administration’s request to allow construction of a White House ballroom to proceed over the objections of preservation groups.
Sources: AP News; CNN; Washington Post; Los Angeles Times; Baltimore Sun
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