Supreme Court rejects Trump’s appeal in E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse lawsuit
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from President Donald Trump after he was found civilly liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll.
The Supreme Court released an orders list Monday morning, rejecting a petition from Trump and allowing a lower court ruling against the president to stand.
In 2019, Carroll claimed in a book excerpt that Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan sometime in 1995 or 1996.
In a statement released soon after the excerpt was publicized, Trump denied the allegation, claiming he never met Carroll and that she was merely “trying to sell a new book.”
“That should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section. No pictures? No surveillance? No video? No reports? No sales attendants around?? I would like to thank Bergdorf Goodman for confirming they have no video of any such incident because it never happened,” Trump stated.
Carroll sued Trump in 2019 over his comments, with a second lawsuit filed in response to remarks Trump made against her in 2021 that she alleged were defamatory.
In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and awarded her $5 million. However, jurors rejected her claim that Trump had raped her.
In late 2024, a three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled against Trump, upholding the district court decision against him.
“On review for abuse of discretion, we conclude that Mr. Trump has not demonstrated that the district court erred in any of the challenged rulings,” the per curiam panel opinion stated.
“Further, he has not carried his burden to show that any claimed error or combination of claimed errors affected his substantial rights as required to warrant a new trial.”
Trump continued to deny any wrongdoing and filed an appeal with the Supreme Court, which includes three justices — Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett — whom he nominated for seats in his first term.
Last month, Trump’s Department of Justice opened a criminal investigation into a trust founded by billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman that had helped pay some of Carroll’s legal expenses.
The investigation, overseen by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Illinois, includes allegations of money laundering, obstruction and conspiracy, as well as a possible perjury charge related to Carroll’s testimony.
