Supreme Court rejects Trump's bid to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict
In a major setback for President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court, on Monday, rejected a push by his legal team to throw out a jury's finding on the E. Jean Carroll case. The jury had found Trump liable for having committed sexual abuse and battery against the former Elle magazine columnist in the mid-1990s and later defaming her.
In their push to overturn the $5 million verdict, Trump's attorneys slammed Judge Lewis A. Kaplan's evidentiary rulings as "highly inflammatory," arguing that the court broke federal rules by permitting two other women to testify about decades-old sexual abuse allegations, all of which the President denies. As per Trump's legal team, the case was also a distraction from his unique duties as President.
Carroll had accused Trump of raping her in the 1990s. In her memoir, 'What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal', which was released in full in July 2019, Carroll detailed an encounter with the President at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City, where she claimed she was violently assaulted. Trump denied the allegations, accusing her of lying to sell books. "I'll say it with great respect: Number one, she's not my type. Number two, it never happened. It never happened, OK?" Trump had said at the time in an interview with The Hill.
As the criminal statute of limitations for the 1990s incident had long expired, Carroll initially filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump. Later, in 2022, following the passing of the Adult Survivors Act, she filed a second lawsuit, adding civil claims of sexual battery. A jury in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexually assaulting and defaming Carroll, though not for rape. In January 2024, another jury found him liable for further defamation and ordered him to pay $83.3 million in damages. However, in May, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted Trump a temporary stay on his appeal.
What this means is that the jury verdict that determined that @realDonaldTrump had sexually abused my friend E. Jean Carroll by penetrating her vagina with his fingers, and therefore had defamed her by denying that he had done so, will stand as a final and conclusive judgment.… https://t.co/5nEUu5Q0Fs
— George Conway ⚖️🇺🇸 (@gtconway3d) June 29, 2026
Countering Trump's attempt to have the $5 million verdict overturned, Carroll's legal team said the two other accusers' testimony was relevant because of the similarities in their allegations. According to Carroll's lawyers, Judge Kaplan's evidentiary rulings aligned with standard judicial practice. "This question is not worthy of review," wrote attorney Roberta Kaplan. The Supreme Court ultimately agreed, issuing a brief, unexplained order on Monday with no noted dissents, permanently cementing the civil judgment.
