Trump loses Supreme Court bid to overturn E. Jean Carroll verdict
Writer E. Jean Carroll arrives at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, where former U.S. President Donald Trump will arrive to ask a federal appeals court to overturn a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming her, who accused Trump of raping her nearly three decades ago, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 6, 2024.
Adam Gray | Reuters
The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump‘s latest Hail Mary attempt to overturn a federal civil jury’s verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.
The court’s decision was revealed in an order list. It offered no explanation for why it refused Trump’s petition for a rehearing in the case.
The order leaves Trump no remaining options to challenge the verdict, Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said later Monday morning.
“We are pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case,” Kaplan said in a statement to CNBC.
“As a result, 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,” said Kaplan.
The Supreme Court had already denied a prior attempt by Trump to challenge the verdict, which left intact the $5 million that Carroll was awarded in damages.
Carroll was paid more than $5.6 million last month, comprising the damages award plus post-judgment interest, according to the online docket in her case.
Trump has also asked the Supreme Court to overturn a separate federal civil defamation verdict awarding Carroll $83.3 million. The high court has not made a decision in that case.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team told CNBC in a statement Monday morning, “The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.”
A civil jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the Manhattan department store Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s, then defaming her in 2019 after she went public with her claim about the encounter.
The Supreme Court in late June denied Trump’s appeal of the Carroll verdict. In early July, Trump asked the court to reconsider.
His attorneys argued that a rehearing was necessary because Trump’s imminent attempt to overturn the separate, $83.3 million Carroll verdict will “present vital questions concerning Presidential immunity for official statements.”
“Those questions are likely to bear on the proper disposition” of the $5 million Carroll case, Trump’s legal team wrote.
Carroll in both cases relied on statements that Trump made while president, which his lawyers argue were “improperly introduced” in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling that presidents have “presumptive immunity” for official acts.
