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The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear President Donald Trump's bid to overturn a $5 million verdict in favor of E. Jean Carroll, the former magazine columnist who accused him of sexual abuse and defamation. The decision, issued without explanation, lets stand a 2023 jury verdict that found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and for defaming her in 2022.

Coverage comparison

The court's action was reported by multiple outlets, including ABC Australia, the Jerusalem Post, the South China Morning Post, and The Hindu. All four described the court's refusal to take up the case as a rejection of Trump's appeal, and all noted the jury's finding that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll. The Hindu specified that the jury found Trump liable for a "sexual assault" on Carroll in a New York department store in 1996.

Trump's lawyers had argued that the trial was unfair because the judge allowed jurors to hear testimony about multiple decades-old, unverified and unrelated allegations of sexual misconduct. The South China Morning Post quoted Trump's lawyers as saying the allegations were propped up by "highly inflammatory" evidentiary rulings. The Jerusalem Post reported that Trump's lawyers argued the trial judge erroneously permitted such testimony.

Key claims

  • The US Supreme Court declined to hear Trump's appeal of the $5 million verdict in favor of Carroll.
  • A federal jury in Manhattan found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, awarding $2 million for the sexual abuse and $3 million for defamation.
  • The jury did not find that Trump raped Carroll, as she had claimed.
  • Trump denied Carroll's allegations and asserted that she lied about them, both while he was president in 2019 and again in 2022.
  • Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said the court's decision "affirms once and for all the jury's unanimous verdict" and "ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions."
  • The Manhattan-based 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict in December 2024.
  • In a separate defamation case, a jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3 million, a decision that was also upheld on appeal.
  • Trump's Justice Department has opened a criminal investigation into whether Carroll committed perjury during depositions related to her two civil suits against Trump.

Perspectives

Trump's response

Trump, who has denied Carroll's allegations, called the case a "fake case" in a social media post and said he would continue to fight what he described as a "Weaponization and Lawfare Case" against him. In his post, he wrote: "Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to 'review' a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met."

Carroll's legal team

Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, welcomed the court's decision, stating: "Today's Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury's unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today's ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions."

Trump's lawyers

Trump's legal team had argued that the trial judge's evidentiary rulings, which allowed testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago, were improper. Attorney Justin D. Smith wrote in court documents that "this mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand."