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Supreme Court Denies Rehearing
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s request to reconsider his appeal of writer E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million sexual abuse and defamation verdict, leaving the judgment in place.
“The Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s request to reconsider”
The justices rejected Trump’s petition after they had earlier declined to hear his appeal of a 2023 jury verdict stemming from Carroll’s allegation that he sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s.
The court’s order was unsigned and offered no explanation for the decision, and the Supreme Court action did not resolve Trump’s separate legal battle over Carroll’s larger $83.3 million defamation judgment.
Trump’s lawyers argued that presidential immunity shields him from liability for statements he made about Carroll in 2019 during his first term as president, and they said the Supreme Court’s 2024 decision recognizing broad immunity for presidents from criminal prosecution for official acts raised questions in the $5 million case.
Carroll testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly 1990s encounter into a violent attack in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, and the jury found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he denied her allegation in 2022.
Kaplan Says Verdict Final
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said after the Supreme Court declined again to hear the case, "We are pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case," and she added that the jury’s unanimous verdict is now final.
Kaplan told CNBC that "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," framing the Monday decision as closing the door on further challenges.
Trump’s legal team, meanwhile, said in a statement that "The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts," and it described the Carroll litigation as a "Democrat-funded travesty."
The Supreme Court’s Monday action followed an earlier June refusal to take up Trump’s appeal, and Trump had then asked the justices to reconsider in July.
While the $5 million case is left intact, Trump has also asked the high court to overturn a separate federal civil defamation verdict totaling $83.3 million, and the court had not yet acted on that appeal.
Immunity Fight and Money
The stakes now hinge on whether the Supreme Court will address Trump’s separate appeal of the $83.3 million defamation judgment, which the parties tie to presidential immunity arguments about statements Trump made in 2019.
“The court is not set to act on that appeal until later this year.”
NBC News reported that Trump has a separate appeal at the Supreme Court concerning a different defamation case in which Carroll won an $83 million judgment, and it said the court is not set to act on that appeal until later this year.
In the $5 million case, Trump paid the judgment shortly after the court declined to take up his appeal in June, and AP reported that the Supreme Court action on Monday did not resolve the larger $83.3 million matter.
Politico said that in July Carroll received more than $5.6 million after a federal judge ordered the money she was awarded plus accumulated interest released despite Trump’s continued attempts to halt the payment.
The Guardian reported that the Supreme Court’s Monday decision left intact the $5m civil judgment against Trump, and it said the funds totaling about $5.6m had been disbursed to Carroll after a Manhattan federal judge ordered their release in July.
