The Supreme Court denied a long-shot effort by President Donald Trump to review the $5 million civil judgment finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
The high court denied Trump’s bid for a rehearing in an orders list published on Monday, declining to elaborate on the decision not to take up the case for arguments. The Supreme Court initially denied Trump’s appeal at the end of June, but the president’s lawyers filed a petition for rehearing, a long-shot bid to get the high court to rethink its decision, which was also denied on Monday.
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The $5 million judgment that Trump had hoped the Supreme Court would review was one of two defamation lawsuits filed against the president by Carroll over his statements denying that he sexually assaulted her. In this case, a jury found Trump was liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid-1990s and defaming her in 2022 by denying the accusation. The jury did not find Trump liable for rape. Trump has denied Carroll’s accusations, maintaining that the encounter never happened. Carroll was unable to remember the year that the alleged assault took place, nor did she produce any physical evidence.
When the Supreme Court rejected the appeal in June, Trump said he was surprised by the decision but added that he would “continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength.”
Last month, Trump appealed the other civil judgment against him for defaming Carroll to the Supreme Court. In that case, a jury awarded her $83 million. The high court is not expected to rule on whether to hear the appeal of the $83 million judgment until October at the earliest.
Trump paid out the $5 million judgment against Carroll last month, despite attempting to delay doing so until after the Supreme Court considered his bid for a rehearing on the appeal.
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The high court’s decision not to hear Trump’s appeal of the Carroll case marks the latest loss for the president at the Supreme Court this year. Trump has racked up losses at the Supreme Court this year over his sweeping tariffs, executive order on birthright citizenship, and bid to fire Federal Reserve governor Lisa Cook. However, Trump has notched significant wins at the high court in cases over his firing power throughout most of the executive branch and his bid to end temporary protected status for various countries.
Trump has two emergency petitions pending before the Supreme Court: one over his mail ballot executive order and another over his bid to build a ballroom at the White House. The Supreme Court could rule on both of those petitions as soon as this week.
