The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Donald Trump's bid to overturn a 2023 jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing advice columnist E Jean Carroll and then defaming her. The justices offered no explanation or dissent, leaving intact a $5 million civil judgment from the original trial.
Trump's effort to appeal had already failed once. In 2024, a three-judge appellate panel in Manhattan upheld the jury's verdict and dismissed his argument that the trial was unfair because jurors heard evidence about his alleged history of sexual misconduct. When Trump then appealed to the nation's highest court this year, the Supreme Court simply declined to take the case, effectively ending his legal challenge.
The finality of the Supreme Court's decision marks the end of Trump's years-long legal battle with Carroll. The dispute began in 2019 when Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, published an excerpt from her memoir alleging that Trump had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan in the 1990s. She sued three years later. Trump has repeatedly denied her allegations and accused her of fabricating the claim.
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, issued a statement hailing the outcome. "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," Kaplan said. "His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today's ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions."
Trump reacted by posting on Truth Social that the Supreme Court had declined to review what he called "a Fake Case brought against me." He offered no further comment on the ruling.
Author James Rodriguez: "After years of delays and courtroom battles, Trump's last legal escape hatch is gone, and Carroll finally gets the finality a jury granted her four years ago."
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