US Supreme Court rejects Trump's bid to overturn $5 million E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse and defamation verdict

Supreme Court declines to hear appeal

The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's request to review a $5 million civil verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll. The brief, unexplained order leaves intact a 2023 jury finding in Manhattan federal court that Trump sexually abused Carroll in a department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defamed her in 2022 by calling her allegations a "hoax" and a "con job." There were no noted dissents.

Trump's lawyers had asked the justices to intervene after the Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict in 2024. They argued the trial judge impermissibly allowed jurors to hear testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct decades ago, as well as the 2005 "Access Hollywood" recording. The appeal framed the proceedings as a distraction from the president's duties, although the trial and verdict occurred before Trump returned to the White House.

“This mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand.”

The 1996 allegation and the defamation claim

Carroll, a former Elle advice columnist and TV talk show host, alleged that Trump raped her in around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman changing room in Manhattan. She went public with the accusation in an excerpt from her memoir published in 2019. The $5 million case centred on statements Trump made in 2022 on social media, when he called the claim a "hoax" and a "con job" and added, "This woman is not my type!"

A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation but concluded the evidence did not support a finding of rape as defined by New York penal law. The panel awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.

Evidentiary disputes and Trump's defence

Trump's legal team told the Supreme Court that the judge "erroneously allowed testimony about multiple decades-old, unverified and unrelated allegations to be presented to the jury," violating federal evidence rules. Carroll's lawyers countered that the other women's accounts were relevant because the alleged conduct followed a similar pattern, and that Judge Lewis Kaplan's rulings were in line with those of other judges nationwide.

“This question is not worthy of review.”

Reactions from both sides

After the Supreme Court's order, Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan said the decision "confirms, once and for all, the unanimous jury verdict that President Donald J. Trump committed sexual assault and defamed E. Jean Carroll" and that all of Trump's attempts to appeal had failed. Trump responded on Truth Social, saying the case was an example of the "weaponization of justice" and political persecution, and that the American people demand an end to what he called a "witch hunt."

The second defamation verdict and ongoing inquiries

Carroll also won an $83.3 million award in a separate defamation trial tied to Trump's 2019 denials. That appeal is still working through lower courts and has not reached the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the Trump Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether Carroll committed perjury during the civil cases.