Supreme Court leaves $5 million Carroll verdict against Trump intact

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear President Donald Trump’s appeal of a $5 million verdict won by writer E Jean Carroll. The decision leaves standing a jury finding that Trump sexually abused the former magazine columnist and defamed her.

Trump had asked the justices to review a lower-court ruling that upheld the 2023 verdict. His lawyers argued that the trial was unfair because jurors heard testimony and evidence concerning other allegations of sexual misconduct against him.

Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, has been in court with Trump since after she publicly accused him in 2019 of raping her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1996. Trump has denied her allegation.

The $5 million case centered on statements Trump made in 2022, when he described Carroll’s accusation on social media as a “hoax” and a “con job.” In the same post, Trump wrote: “This woman is not my type!”

Appeal focused on trial evidence

Carroll sued Trump in federal court in Manhattan. In 2023, jurors found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming her and awarded her $5 million in damages.

Trump’s legal team argued that the verdict was influenced by what it called “highly inflammatory” trial rulings. Those rulings allowed jurors to hear from two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades earlier.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld the verdict in 2024. The appeals court ruled that the challenged evidence showed what it described as a “repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct” that was consistent with Carroll’s account.

In their petition to the Supreme Court, Trump’s lawyers said the trial judge wrongly permitted testimony about “multiple decades-old, unverified and unrelated allegations” and argued that the evidence should have been excluded under federal rules.

Carroll’s attorneys urged the Supreme Court to reject the appeal. They argued that the testimony from the other women was relevant because their allegations were similar to Carroll’s, and they said U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan’s evidentiary rulings were consistent with decisions by other judges around the country.

Another Carroll verdict remains on appeal

The Supreme Court’s refusal to take the case came as the court continued issuing decisions in major cases near the end of its term, including disputes tied to Trump’s agenda.

Carroll has also won a separate defamation verdict against Trump. In that case, a jury awarded her $83.3 million over Trump’s 2019 denials of her claims.

Trump is appealing the $83.3 million judgment as well. That separate appeal has not yet reached the Supreme Court.

This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.