The US Supreme Court on Monday again rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a $5 million civil verdict in favour of writer E Jean Carroll, leaving in place a jury’s finding that he sexually abused and defamed her.The justices declined Trump’s request to reconsider their decision in June not to hear his appeal of the 2023 verdict.The court’s order was unsigned and gave no explanation. The Supreme Court rarely agrees to rehear cases it has already declined to take up.Trump’s lawyers had argued that the trial was unfair and that the court should reconsider its earlier decision.
Jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation
The case stems from Carroll’s allegation that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s.Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, first publicly accused Trump of raping her in 2019. Trump denied the allegation and repeatedly accused her of lying.The case that resulted in the $5 million verdict focused on Trump’s statements in 2022, when he described Carroll’s allegation as a “hoax” and a “con job” on social media.A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her, but it did not find him liable for rape, as Carroll had alleged.Trump paid nearly $5.63 million following the Supreme Court’s decision in June, with the amount including the original $5 million judgment and interest, according to Reuters.Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed Monday’s decision.“We are pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case,” Kaplan said.“As a result, the jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court,” she added.
Separate $83.3 million Carroll case still before Supreme Court
Trump still has another appeal before the Supreme Court involving Carroll. That case concerns a separate $83.3 million jury verdict over statements he made about her in 2019, while he was president.Trump and the Justice Department argue that presidential immunity protects him from Carroll’s defamation lawsuit over those statements. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear that appeal.The two Carroll cases are civil lawsuits and are separate from the Supreme Court’s landmark 2024 ruling on presidential immunity in criminal cases. In that ruling, the court held that former presidents have absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for actions within their core constitutional powers.Trump has consistently denied Carroll’s allegations and has maintained that the legal proceedings against him were unfair.
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