The U.S. Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump’s request to overturn a $5 million US judgment in favor of E. Jean Carroll. This decision comes after a jury found Trump responsible for sexually mistreating the former magazine columnist and defaming her. Trump’s appeal was dismissed by the justices following a lower court’s affirmation of the 2023 ruling. Trump argued that the trial was unjust because the judge allowed jurors to hear about his alleged prior sexual misconduct.
Trump has been in a legal battle with Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, since she disclosed in 2019 that he had assaulted her around 1996 in a Bergdorf Goodman store dressing room in Manhattan. Trump denied these claims, stating that they were false, both in 2019 during his first presidential term and again in 2022 after leaving office.
The Justice Department, under Trump, initiated a criminal probe against Carroll and other opponents. This investigation, revealed in May, focused on whether Carroll committed perjury during testimonies related to the civil lawsuits she won against Trump.
The case leading to the $5 million US verdict involved Trump’s 2022 social media posts where he labeled Carroll’s accusations as a “hoax” and a “con job” and added, “This woman is not my type.”
Carroll sued Trump in a federal court in Manhattan, and in 2023, jurors concluded that Trump had sexually abused and defamed Carroll, awarding $5 million US in damages. They did not find evidence to support Carroll’s claim of rape.
In 2024, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld the verdict, citing evidence such as Trump’s comments about his sexual prowess in an Access Hollywood video during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump’s lawyers argued that the trial judge wrongly allowed testimony on decades-old, unverified, and unrelated allegations.
In another lawsuit won by Carroll in 2025, the 2nd Circuit declined to overturn the $83.3 million US defamation verdict against Trump for denying her claims and alleging she fabricated them to promote her book.
Photo: E. Jean Carroll leaving the courthouse in New York City in September 2024.
