Supreme Court shuts down President Donald Trump’s push to toss out $5 million verdict in E. Jean Carroll assault case
The Supreme Court has once again rejected President Donald Trump’s attempt to toss out a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York department store in the mid-1990s and then defaming her decades later. Trump’s lawyers asked the justices to reconsider their June refusal to hear his appeal, but the Court declined the request on Monday, August 17, leaving the judgment final. The decision comes as Trump and the Justice Department separately seek Supreme Court review of an $83 million defamation verdict stemming from statements he made about Carroll during his first presidency.
Supreme Court rejects Donald Trump’s second attempt to toss $5 million E. Jean Carroll judgment
The justices denied Trump’s petition for rehearing along with several other requests without issuing an explanation, as is customary for such orders. The Court had previously refused in June to hear Trump’s appeal against the $5 million judgment, and the president subsequently paid the award. With Monday’s decision, the verdict can no longer be challenged in court.
The award stems from a 2023 civil trial in which a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll. Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former television talk-show host, testified that Trump attacked her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store across from Trump Tower, in the spring of 1996.
E. Jean Carroll’s attorney celebrates Supreme Court decision
Carroll first publicly described the assault in 2019. At the time, Trump denied knowing her and dismissed her accusations, saying, “She’s not my type.”
The $83 million verdict concerns Trump’s statements in 2022 — when he was not the president — when he called Carroll’s claim a “hoax” and a “con job” in a post on social media.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed the Supreme Court’s decision. “We are pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case. … 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,” Kaplan said.
Trump has consistently denied wrongdoing.
$83 million case remains unresolved
The Supreme Court’s latest ruling does not resolve Carroll’s separate $83.3 million defamation award from a January 2024 jury verdict stemming from a case concerning statements Trump made in 2019 while serving as president, when he denied Carroll’s allegations and attacked her publicly. Trump and the Justice Department asked the Supreme Court in July to toss that judgment, arguing that presidential immunity and the Westfall Act protect him from personal liability for statements made as part of his official duties. “Absent this court’s intervention, the sitting president is facing nearly a hundred million dollars of personal liability for conduct that was well within the scope of his federal office. … That alone deserves this court’s attention,” government attorneys wrote.
Trump’s lawyers also argued that the Second Circuit Court in Manhattan was “engaged in procedural contortions” to avoid addressing Trump’s claims regarding presidential immunity and said the damages were “grossly excessive,” describing it as an unprecedented case.
The Supreme Court has not yet said whether it will hear that appeal.
Two cases, two separate legal outcomes
The two Carroll cases have taken different legal paths but center on Trump’s repeated public denials of her allegations. The $5 million judgment, covering the 1996 assault and later defamation, has now reached its final stage after the Supreme Court’s second rejection of Trump’s appeal.