In a development that closes one chapter of the long-running legal battle facing former president Donald Trump, the US Supreme Court has declined to hear his appeal seeking to overturn a lower court verdict that found him liable for sexual abuse and defamation against writer E. Jean Carroll. The ruling marks the end of Trump’s last attempt to undo the 2023 jury verdict, and requires him to pay the $5 million in damages awarded to Carroll nearly two years ago.
The case dates back to the mid-1990s, when Carroll, a now 81-year-old former magazine columnist, alleged that Trump sexually assaulted her inside a Manhattan department store dressing room. Decades after the alleged incident, Carroll brought a civil claim against Trump, after he publicly denied her accusation in a 2022 post on his Truth Social platform, labeling the allegation a lie. In 2023, a jury in New York found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, though it rejected Carroll’s claim of rape under New York state penal law. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages. A separate defamation case later resulted in an additional $83 million in damages being ordered against Trump, an appeal for which he already lost last September.
Following the 2023 initial verdict, Trump repeatedly pushed to have the ruling thrown out, arguing that the trial judge had improperly allowed damaging evidence that skewed the jury’s perception of him. Specifically, his legal team objected to the admission of the 2005 *Access Hollywood* tape, in which Trump was recorded making lewd comments about grabbing and kissing women without consent. Trump’s appeal was rejected by a federal appeals court in 2024, which upheld the jury’s verdict and ruled that a new trial was not justified. That rejection led Trump to turn to the nation’s highest court as his final option to overturn the ruling. As is its standard practice, the Supreme Court released no explanation for its decision to decline the case.
Reaction to the ruling split sharply along the lines of the original case. Carroll’s lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, released a statement saying the Supreme Court’s decision permanently validates the jury’s unanimous finding against Trump. “His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions,” Kaplan added. Prior to the Supreme Court announcement, Carroll’s legal team had not made any public comment on Trump’s appeal.
For Trump’s legal team, however, the ruling is nothing more than another step in what they frame as a partisan political attack. Speaking to CBS News, a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said, “The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.” The statement added, “President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again.”
The resolution of this appeal comes as Trump navigates a sprawling array of legal challenges even as he campaigns for a second term in the 2024 presidential election, cementing the outcome of one high-profile case that has shadowed his political and personal life for years.