Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Request To Reconsider E. Jean Carroll Case

The Supreme Court rejected President Donald Trump's request to reconsider its decision not to take up one of E. Jean Carroll's lawsuits against him, finalizing the verdict finding Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse and ensuring Carroll will get the $5 million in damages Trump had to pay her.

The Supreme Court denied Trump's request to rehear the case as part of a broader order list Monday, with no comment on the decision or indication of if any justices would have taken it up.

Justices denied Trump's initial request to take up the case in June, leaving the $5 million verdict against him in place, but the president had asked the court to reconsider that decision -- something it only does in the rarest of cases.

Monday's order means Trump has no more options to appeal the ruling against him, and ensures the $5 million in damages he's been ordered to pay Carroll will stand.

Carroll received $5.6 million in the case -- consisting of the $5 million award plus interest -- through a court-controlled account in July, after the Supreme Court initially ruled against the president, but this will give her the freedom to spend that money and ensure it is no longer tied up amid the proceedings.

Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan said Monday the writer and her legal team are "pleased" with the Supreme Court's decision, which means "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."

"The American people stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all the Witch Hunts," Trump's legal team said in a statement Monday decrying the decision, also calling the Carroll cases a "hoax" and adding the president "will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare."

The $5 million award was one of two fines Trump has been ordered to pay Carroll in two separate lawsuits. The other, which carries an $83.3 million penalty, is still being appealed. Trump has also appealed that decision to the Supreme Court after an appeals court let the ruling against him stand, but justices have not yet decided whether or not they'll take up the case.

Carroll publicly alleged in 2019 that Trump had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s, which the president has strongly denied. Carroll initially sued Trump for defamation in 2019 before then bringing a second lawsuit under New York's Adult Survivors Act, which accused him of both defamation and sexual assault. Though filed second, that lawsuit ended up going to trial first in 2023 and resulted in the $5 million verdict against Trump, with the jury finding him liable for defamation and sexual abuse, but not rape. Carroll's defamation-only lawsuit then went to trial in 2024, with the jury only having to decide how much Trump has to pay Carroll, given that another jury already found he defamed her. That jury ordered him to pay $83.3 million with interest, which has been upheld in appeals court.