The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up President Donald Trump’s appeal of a $5 million civil verdict involving writer E. Jean Carroll, letting lower court rulings stand without further review and effectively closing off his final avenue of review in the case.
The court issued its decision without comment or noted dissents.
The appeal stemmed from a civil lawsuit in which a New York jury found that evidence supported Carroll’s claims that Trump sexually abused her in the mid-1990s in a Manhattan department store dressing room and defamed her through public denials.
The jury rejected a separate claim of rape but found liability for sexual abuse under civil standards and awarded Carroll $5 million in damages in 2023.
Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and writer, first publicly accused Trump during his presidency, later bringing the civil case in federal court.
The trial drew national attention and included testimony describing Carroll’s account of the alleged encounter, along with statements from witnesses who said she confided in them after the alleged incident occurred.
Trump has consistently denied Carroll’s allegations and argued the trial was unfair and prejudicial.
His legal team contended jurors were improperly exposed to evidence that should not have been admitted, including testimony from other women who made unrelated allegations of sexual misconduct.
They also cited a 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording in which Trump was heard making vulgar remarks about women, arguing its inclusion improperly influenced the jury’s assessment of the case, USA Today reported.
Carroll’s attorneys countered that the disputed evidence was properly admitted to support her claims and to establish what they described as a broader pattern relevant to the case.
They also argued that appellate courts had already reviewed and upheld the trial judge’s evidentiary rulings.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit previously rejected Trump’s challenges, concluding that even if any errors occurred, they did not affect the outcome of the proceedings, according to CBS News.
The Supreme Court’s decision applies only to the first civil verdict.
In a separate 2024 trial, a second jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million after finding Trump liable for additional defamatory statements made after the initial verdict.
That case remains under separate appeal and was not addressed in Monday’s order.
Trump’s petition to the Supreme Court argued that the case involved decades-old claims that should not have been relitigated and that the proceedings placed an improper burden on a sitting president.
His attorneys also maintained that Carroll’s allegations were unsubstantiated and that the trial court erred in allowing certain evidence to be presented to the jury, which they said affected the fairness of the trial, The Hill reported.
Carroll’s legal team urged the justices to reject the appeal, saying Trump had not raised any legal issue warranting Supreme Court review and that lower courts had already fully considered and upheld the proceedings.
They also argued there was no conflict among appellate courts that would justify the high court’s intervention.
With Monday’s order, the appeal is rejected and the lower court judgment remains in place, marking another setback in Trump’s effort to overturn the civil verdict while leaving intact the jury’s findings and the $5 million award.
WATCH:
