The Supreme Court on Monday refused, for a second time, to take up President Trump’s challenge to a jury verdict holding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
The justices disclosed the move in an unsigned order, leaving in place the same position from June.
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, said Monday that her team was “pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case.”
“As a result, 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,” Kaplan said.
In 2023, a federal civil jury in New York ordered Mr. Trump to pay Carroll $5 million in damages after a trial centered on her allegation that he forcefully penetrated her with his fingers in a department store dressing room in the 1990s, then lied about her after she publicly came forward in 2019.
The nine-member jury, made up of six men and three women, unanimously concluded that Carroll had proven her claims by a preponderance of the evidence. Deliberations lasted less than three hours.
Carroll received $5.62 million this summer, with the total reflecting interest that had accrued since the case went to trial.
Mr. Trump has repeatedly and forcefully denied Carroll’s allegations, describing them as a “hoax” and attacking her credibility. He did not attend the trial or call any witnesses. His denials formed the basis of the defamation claims in this case and were also central to a separate 2024 trial.
Mr. Trump was in attendance for much of the second trial, testifying briefly, but leaving minutes before that jury awarded Carroll more than $83 million on related defamation allegations. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, had asked the jury to award Carroll enough to “make him stop” defaming her client. He has continued to deny her allegations.
In taking that case to the Supreme Court, Mr. Trump’s legal team claimed an appeals panel neglected to rule on whether he had presidential immunity when making the statements about Carroll. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on his effort.
In response to Monday’s order, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team sent a statement it has used for developments in the Carroll matters throughout the summer, referring to them as the “Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.”
