The United States Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump’s attempt to throw out a jury’s five-million-dollar finding that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll and later defamed her, in a brief order that leaves the verdict intact and ends what Carroll’s lawyer called his “quest to avoid accountability.”
The high court declined to take up the case without explanation, as is standard practice. There were no noted dissents. The decision means the 2023 jury finding, which determined that Trump sexually abused Carroll in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in spring 1996 and defamed her when he denied it in 2022, cannot be further challenged through this route.
“His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions,” said Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan in a statement following the decision.
Trump called the court’s decision “surprising” in a social media post and said he would continue fighting the defamation claims. “This case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for,” he wrote.
What Trump’s lawyers argued
Trump’s legal team had argued that the verdict was propped up by what they called “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, particularly the judge’s decision to allow testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago. Trump has denied all three women’s allegations.
His attorneys argued that Judge Lewis Kaplan had broken federal evidence rules and framed the case as a distraction from Trump’s duties as president, even though the underlying verdict predated his return to the White House. “This mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand,” wrote attorney Justin D. Smith in court documents. Trump has since nominated Smith to serve as a federal appeals court judge. His lawyers described the case as “Liberal Lawfare” in a statement on Monday.
Carroll’s lawyers had urged the justices to decline the case, arguing the women’s testimony was relevant given the similarity of their allegations and that the judge’s rulings were consistent with judicial practice around the country. “This question is not worthy of review,” Carroll’s attorney wrote.
The broader legal picture
Monday’s ruling does not resolve all of Carroll’s claims against Trump. He has also said he intends to appeal a separate eighty-three-point-three million dollar defamation verdict against him, awarded by a different jury after a second trial.
Trump has had mixed results in the courts. He is currently fighting a ten-billion-dollar defamation lawsuit brought against the BBC, which has moved to have the case thrown out. He successfully overturned a New York civil fraud penalty of more than five-hundred million dollars when a state appeals court threw it out. The Supreme Court granted him broad immunity from criminal prosecution in 2024, and later narrowly rejected his bid to halt sentencing in his New York hush money case.
The Supreme Court is currently handing down its biggest opinions of the term, including a ruling that expands Trump’s power to fire federal bureaucrats, with the exception of the Federal Reserve.
Carroll’s account
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former television host, testified at the 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter into a violent attack in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, the luxury retailer located across from Trump Tower in Manhattan. The jury found him liable for the sexual abuse and for defaming her when he publicly denied her allegation years later.
Monday’s Supreme Court decision means that finding is now final.
Leave a Reply