Supreme Court rejects Trump push to overturn E. Jean Carroll assault and defamation verdict

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday handed a loss to President Donald Trump by refusing to hear his attempt to overturn a jury's finding that he sexually assaulted and later defamed writer E. Jean Carroll .

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The justices turned away Trump's appeal in the case, meaning that the 2023 jury verdict and a $5 million civil judgment remain in place.

The case arose from a federal lawsuit filed by Carroll in Manhattan alleging that Trump assaulted her in the dressing room of a department store in 1996. The defamation claims relate to statements he made about her after his first term in office, in which he described her claims as a "con job" and "hoax."

Carroll first made her allegations in 2019 and filed the lawsuit three years later, in part under a New York state law aimed at assisting survivors of historic sexual assault.

Trump has denied the allegations, with his lawyers noting that Carroll never reported the incident to the police and that there were no witnesses. Trump's legal team said in a court filing that Carroll waited until he was president to bring her claims so she could "maximize political injury to him and profit for herself."

On appeal, Trump had argued that Manhattan-based U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan should not have allowed testimony from other women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who had accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Trump also denied those allegations.

Trump's lawyers also said Kaplan should not have allowed jurors to view the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape in which Trump could be heard speaking disparagingly about women.

Trump’s lawyers argued that, taken together, Kaplan's decisions to allow the evidence not directly tied to Carroll's claims helped boost her case and cover up for the lack of direct evidence relating to her specific allegations.

Carroll's lawyers said in their own court papers that Kaplan correctly allowed the evidence to be admitted as it speaks to Trump's alleged prior conduct and his propensity to take the kind of actions she claimed in her lawsuit.

They also pointed out that the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld the jury verdict in a 2024 ruling, found that the issues about which evidence should have been admitted at trial were not a determining factor in upholding the verdict.

Carroll filed a separate defamation claim against Trump not at issue at the Supreme Court that led to a $83.3 million judgment. That case, concerning statements Trump made while serving his first term in office, is still on appeal. Trump argues that the claims should be dismissed on the basis of presidential immunity.