US Supreme Court Again Declines Trump Appeal in Carroll Case

The US Supreme Court has for a second time declined to intervene in a defamation case brought against President Donald Trump by writer E. Jean Carroll. The court rejected a request to reconsider its earlier decision not to hear an appeal of a $5 million jury verdict against Trump.

The verdict, reached in 2023, found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her. The case centered on statements Trump made in 2022, when he dismissed Carroll's allegations as a "hoax" and a "con job" on social media. Jurors did not, however, find that Trump raped Carroll, as she had claimed.

Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, first accused Trump of rape in a 2019 memoir excerpt, alleging the incident occurred in a dressing room at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. Trump has consistently denied the claims.

Following the court's initial denial in June, Carroll collected nearly $5.63 million from Trump, which included the original verdict amount plus interest.

Trump's legal team had argued the trial was unfair. In their request for a rehearing, they also suggested that a separate appeal before the court, concerning an $83.3 million verdict in a related defamation case, could have implications for the earlier ruling. That separate case involves statements Trump made in 2019 while president, and his lawyers have argued that presidential immunity shields him from liability.

The Supreme Court's 2024 ruling on presidential immunity applies to criminal prosecution for official acts, whereas the Carroll cases are civil lawsuits.