President Donald Trump said he would not give up his attempts to throw out the $5 million jury verdict in E. Jean Carroll’s defamation case related to sex-abuse allegations, even after the Supreme Court denied his request.
“Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to ‘review’ a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met (Decades old celebrity photo line, standing with her husband, does not count!),” Trump wrote on Truth Social Monday, once again elevating his claims of not knowing Carroll, despite being photographed with her.
“I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength.”
For years, Trump has been trying to toss out the 2022 jury verdict, where a jury found him liable for sexual abuse against Carroll, a former “Elle” magazine writer. Trump, who has consistently denied Carroll’s allegations and accused her of lying, was also found liable for defaming the writer in a separate case.
Lawyers for Trump argued the $5 million verdict in the sex-abuse and defamation case was unfairly brought and an attempt to hurt the president – despite the verdict occurring before Trump returned to the White House.
An appeals court had already rejected the president’s argument, finding that he failed to meet the burden of proof that errors occurred in the case to warrant a new trial.
The Supreme Court justices, most of whom are typically sympathetic to Trump’s arguments, did not explain why it chose not to take up the case, as is tradition in such orders.
Following the Supreme Court’s rejection Monday, 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. President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again.”
Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Carroll, said the Supreme Court’s ruling backed the verdict.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions,” Kaplan said in a statement, obtained by NBC News.
The president and Carroll have been in a legal battle since 2019, when the former advice columnist published an excerpt from her memoir that accused Trump of assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.
Trump denied Carroll’s claims and a civil legal battle ensued and resulted in two separate jury verdicts.
The case that led to the $5 million verdict stemmed from a social media post Trump made in 2022 calling Carroll’s allegations a “hoax” and a “con job.” Carroll later sued Trump, and a jury decided in 2023 that she was defamed by the president, awarding her $5 million in damages.
The jury, however, did not find that Trump raped Carroll, as she had written in her memoir.
Trump had been pushing the high court to take up the case, with the hopes of getting it tossed, as his lawyers argued the allegations were based on the testimony of two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago. The president has denied all three women’s allegations.
In the other case, a New York jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million after finding the president liable for defamation based on statements he made claiming she was “not my type” and had been motivated by politics to make the accusations.
The president is also appealing that decision.
