The Supreme Court refused to hear President Trump’s appeal one of the E. Jean Carroll cases on Monday, leaving the lower courts rulings standing. Carroll alleges that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s. Trump has denied the allegations.
The supreme court declined to take up Trump’s appeal of the $5 million dollar verdict, meaning the president will now have to pay. None of the justices, three of whom were appointed by President Trump issued a written dissent to the decision. Not one justice felt strongly enough to even write a dissent to the denial, a significant detail to consider.
What the President was arguing is that allegations leading to the $5 million verdict were propped up by “highly inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, including those that allowed the testimony of two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago. They also argued the Access Hollywood tape shouldn’t have been played for the Jury.
These arguments failed because the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict back in 2024, ruling that evidence established “a repeated, idiosyncratic pattern of conduct” that was consistent with Carroll’s allegations. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the appeal means that reasoning still stands.
Trump filed his appeal in November and the case was on the Court’s agenda and was rescheduled about 15 times. Legal analyst Steve Vladeck of Georgetown said “The oddity here isn’t just that the court rescheduled one of the Carroll cases 15 times, it’s the absence of a persuasive justification for having done so.” The delay benefited Trump financially by deferring when he had to pay.
Including interest trump owes Carroll about $100 million, combining both verdicts. However, the $5 million case is now final. The 83.3 million case is still in appeals.
Since Trump filed his appeal the Justice Department has launched a criminal investigation into Carroll, focused on whether she committed perjury in her civil lawsuits against Trump, a significant piece of context considering the administration, whose leader owes Carroll money, opened a criminal investigation into E. Jean Carroll.
Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan: “Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll. His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions.”
Carroll herself celebrated on her own Substack, writing in all capital letters: “WE WON! THIS WIN IS FOR EVERY WOMAN IN THE WORLD!”
Trump’s legal team called it a “Democrat-funded travesty” and vowed to keep fighting.
What this could mean politically, and what you make of it, is as always for you to decide.
-Elijah Iraheta, Editor in Chief, Saber News
