Trump Loses $5 Million Supreme Court Appeal in E. Jean Carroll Sexual Abuse and Defamation Case

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s final bid to overturn a $5 million civil verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll, leaving intact a jury finding that he sexually abused and defamed her.

The June 29 decision upholds the 2023 Manhattan federal jury verdict and moves Carroll closer to collecting on the judgment. The justices issued no written explanation after they declined to hear Trump’s appeal, a common practice when the court refuses review.

Justices Leave Lower Court Ruling Intact

The order ends Trump’s appeal in the smaller of two federal civil cases Carroll brought against him. Trump had asked the high court to review trial rulings that allowed jurors to hear evidence his lawyers said was unfairly prejudicial. The case reached the Supreme Court after the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict. The petition was docketed November 13, 2025, after the appeals court denied rehearing earlier that year.

The Supreme Court did not rule on the facts of Carroll’s allegation. It simply refused to disturb the lower-court judgment. That decision leaves the verdict enforceable. Trump had already placed funds connected to the judgment in a court-controlled account while the appeal continued.

Jury Found Trump Liable in Civil Case

Carroll sued Trump after accusing him of assaulting her inside a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump denied the allegation and said Carroll fabricated the account. A federal jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation. The jury did not find him liable for rape under the specific legal question presented at trial.

The civil standard required jurors to decide whether Carroll had proved her claims by a preponderance of the evidence. That standard is lower than the standard used in criminal cases. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million. That included damages tied to the sexual abuse claim and damages tied to Trump’s later public statements about her.

Appeal Focused on Evidence at Trial

Trump’s lawyers argued that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan made errors during the trial. They challenged his decision to allow testimony from two women who alleged Trump had assaulted them years earlier. They also objected to the jury seeing the 2005 “Access Hollywood” recording. Trump’s team argued that the evidence should have been excluded because it risked unfair prejudice.

Carroll’s lawyers defended the evidentiary rulings. They argued the testimony and recording were relevant under federal rules governing civil sexual assault cases. The appeals court rejected Trump’s position. It held that the trial judge’s rulings on evidence did not warrant a new trial.

Two Carroll Cases Took Different Paths

Carroll’s litigation against Trump involved two separate cases. They were filed years apart and moved through court in an unusual order. Her first lawsuit was filed in 2019 after Trump denied her accusation while he was president. That case focused on defamation tied to those earlier statements.

Her second lawsuit was filed in 2022 after New York created a temporary legal path for older sexual abuse claims. The law created a one-year window for adult survivors to file civil claims that would otherwise have been time-barred. The 2022 case went to trial first. It produced the $5 million verdict now left standing by the Supreme Court.

Larger $83.3 Million Judgment Remains Separate.

Carroll’s 2019 defamation case went to trial later and produced a much larger verdict. A separate jury awarded her $83.3 million in January 2024. That award focused on Trump’s 2019 statements denying Carroll’s allegation. The judgment included compensatory and punitive damages.

Trump is still fighting that verdict through a separate legal track. His lawyers have argued that the judgment should be reduced or overturned. The Supreme Court’s Monday decision does not decide the $83.3 million case. It applies only to the $5 million judgment from the 2023 trial.

Trump Maintains His Denial

Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegation. His lawyers have described the case as unfair and have argued that evidence admitted at trial dis