Court rejects Trump's final appeal in writer Jean Carroll $5 million sex abuse case
Writer and former advice columnist of Elle magazine, E Jean Carroll, claimed Donald Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. With the US Supreme Court overturning the 2023 jury finding, it keeps the $5 million verdict intact as the US President contests a separate defamation case too.
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's appeal over a $5 million case to overturn a jury's finding that he sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. This was the 80-year-old's final appeal in the case, meaning he now has to pay the amount to the columnist.
Trump's lawyers had argued that the case was shaped by what they called "highly inflammatory" evidentiary rulings, including the decision to allow testimony from two other women who also accused him of sexual abuse decades ago. They said the US President has denied the allegations by all three women.
The bench, however, turned away the US President's appeal after a lower court upheld the 2023 jury verdict and rejected his arguments.
Trump's legal team said the trial judge had broken federal evidence rules. They also argued that the case was a distraction from the 80-year-old's unique duties as President, although the verdict was delivered before his return to the White House. "This mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand," attorney Justin D Smith wrote in court documents. Trump has since nominated Smith to be an appeals court judge.
Carroll's lawyers had asked the justices not to take up the case. They said the testimony of the two other women was relevant because their allegations were similar, and that Judge Lewis Kaplan's rulings were consistent with those in other courts across the country. "This question is not worthy of review," attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, wrote.
The decision came as the Supreme Court was delivering opinions in the biggest cases of its term, including several linked to Trump's agenda. The US President has publicly expressed frustration with Supreme Court defeats in personal terms before, including criticism after the court's majority struck down global tariffs he had imposed under an emergency powers law.
Trump reacted sharply to the decision, calling the matter a "fake case" by a woman he never met. "I will continue the fight against this weaponization and lawfare case against me, including the ridiculous claim of defamation, with all of my power and strength. This case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to another President, or candidate to be," he wrote on Truth Social.
Donald Trump has been fighting Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, ever since she published a section from her memoir in 2019 wherein he claimed he had raped her around 1996 at a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. At the 2023 trial, she said that he turned a friendly encounter into a violent attack. Trump junked the allegations and stressed that she lied about them both in 2019, during his first term, and again in 2022 when he was out of office. The jury also found Trump liable for defaming the writer when he denied her allegation in 2022.
Carroll has spoken publicly about the allegation.
After the 2023 trial, a separate jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in a second defamation trial. The US President is appealing that ruling as well, although that case is not yet before the Supreme Court. Trump has also avoided other major court setbacks, including having a New York civil fraud penalty of more than $500 million thrown out by a New York appeals court. The Supreme Court had also granted him broad immunity from criminal prosecution in 2024, though it later narrowly rejected his bid to stop sentencing in his New York hush-money case.
With Monday's order, the Supreme Court has left untouched the jury's findings in Carroll's favour, while Trump continues to fight a separate defamation award and other legal battles.
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's appeal over a $5 million case to overturn a jury's finding that he sexually abused writer E Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her. This was the 80-year-old's final appeal in the case, meaning he now has to pay the amount to the columnist.
Trump's lawyers had argued that the case was shaped by what they called "highly inflammatory" evidentiary rulings, including the decision to allow testimony from two other women who also accused him of sexual abuse decades ago. They said the US President has denied the allegations by all three women.
The bench, however, turned away the US President's appeal after a lower court upheld the 2023 jury verdict and rejected his arguments.
Trump's legal team said the trial judge had broken federal evidence rules. They also argued that the case was a distraction from the 80-year-old's unique duties as President, although the verdict was delivered before his return to the White House. "This mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand," attorney Justin D Smith wrote in court documents. Trump has since nominated Smith to be an appeals court judge.
Carroll's lawyers had asked the justices not to take up the case. They said the testimony of the two other women was relevant because their allegations were similar, and that Judge Lewis Kaplan's rulings were consistent with those in other courts across the country. "This question is not worthy of review," attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, wrote.
The decision came as the Supreme Court was delivering opinions in the biggest cases of its term, including several linked to Trump's agenda. The US President has publicly expressed frustration with Supreme Court defeats in personal terms before, including criticism after the court's majority struck down global tariffs he had imposed under an emergency powers law.
Trump reacted sharply to the decision, calling the matter a "fake case" by a woman he never met. "I will continue the fight against this weaponization and lawfare case against me, including the ridiculous claim of defamation, with all of my power and strength. This case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to another President, or candidate to be," he wrote on Truth Social.
Donald Trump has been fighting Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, ever since she published a section from her memoir in 2019 wherein he claimed he had raped her around 1996 at a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. At the 2023 trial, she said that he turned a friendly encounter into a violent attack. Trump junked the allegations and stressed that she lied about them both in 2019, during his first term, and again in 2022 when he was out of office. The jury also found Trump liable for defaming the writer when he denied her allegation in 2022.
Carroll has spoken publicly about the allegation.
After the 2023 trial, a separate jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in a second defamation trial. The US President is appealing that ruling as well, although that case is not yet before the Supreme Court. Trump has also avoided other major court setbacks, including having a New York civil fraud penalty of more than $500 million thrown out by a New York appeals court. The Supreme Court had also granted him broad immunity from criminal prosecution in 2024, though it later narrowly rejected his bid to stop sentencing in his New York hush-money case.
With Monday's order, the Supreme Court has left untouched the jury's findings in Carroll's favour, while Trump continues to fight a separate defamation award and other legal battles.
