Supreme Court rejects Trump’s renewed appeal to block E. Jean Carroll award
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Supreme Court rejects Trump’s renewed appeal to block E. Jean Carroll award")
President Donald Trump had to pay Carroll $5 million plus interest after the court first rejected his appeal on June 29. Photograph: (AFP)
The Supreme Court declined to take up President Trump’s bid to overturn a 2023 jury verdict in a civil suit brought by Carroll that awarded her $5 million. In an unusual and rare move, Trump had asked the court to reconsider its decision from June that rejected his initial appeal.
The US Supreme Court on Monday rejected for the second time an appeal by President Donald Trump to avoid paying more than $5.6 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for sexually abusing and defaming her.
The Supreme Court declined to take up President Trump’s bid to overturn a 2023 jury verdict in a civil suit brought by Carroll that awarded her $5 million.
In an unusual and rare move, Trump had asked the court to reconsider its decision from June that rejected his initial appeal. The court almost never grants such requests.
Trump had to pay Carroll $5 million plus interest after the court first rejected his appeal on June 29.
His lawyers fought the payment, arguing he deserved a chance to ask the Supreme Court to reconsider his request.
However, it is rare for litigants to ask for a second look and even rarer for the court to grant one.
Trending Stories
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
)
)
&im=FitAndFill=(700,400))
)
)
)
Trump’s lawyers said reconsideration was warranted because the case is connected to another appeal involving Carroll that they have asked the Supreme Court to hear.
In that case, a Manhattan civil jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million from Trump in 2024 based on the conclusion that Trump defamed her in 2019 when he first denied her allegations.
Trump’s lawyers have argued he should have immunity for his 2019 comments because he made them while serving as president.
“That use of official Presidential statements matters, because this Court has made clear that official Presidential acts may not be used as evidence to impose liability for other conduct,” his lawyers told the justices, referencing the court’s 2024 ruling that presidents can’t be criminally prosecuted for “official” acts taken by a president.
Trump’s statements were used against him in both trials, but Trump’s lawyers did not raise the immunity issue in their appeal of the first judgement. His lawyers said they focused on other arguments because the Supreme Court had not yet issued its 2024 decision about presidential immunity.
Also Read: ‘We cannot live with war’: Former Iran president warns against prolonged conflict, urges diplomacy
The clash started in 2019 when Carroll said that Trump sexually assaulted her at a New York City department store in 1996. Trump fired back, saying that she was making up the story to sell her book. He described her claims as a “con job” and “hoax” and denied any wrongdoing, saying he does not know Carroll.
Carroll sued him months later and eventually won the $83.3 million judgment.
While the case was ongoing, Trump repeated the denial in a social media post in 2022. Carroll sued Trump again under a special window of time that New York granted to sexual abuse survivors. In 2023, a New York jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse against Carroll, which resulted in the $5 million verdict.
Federal appeals courts upheld both judgments.
