Supreme Court won't hear Trump's appeal, leaving Carroll verdict in place

The US Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear President Trump's appeal of a $5 million civil verdict won by the writer E. Jean Carroll, leaving the judgment against him standing, Bloomberg reported. The court denied review without comment, and no justice publicly noted a dissent.

What the court did

The justices rejected Trump's petition asking them to take up the case — a routine, unexplained order that ends his appeal at the nation's highest court. It is important to be precise about what this is and is not: the underlying ruling was a civil finding of liability by a jury, not a criminal conviction, as PBS noted. The Supreme Court did not rule on the merits; it simply declined to second-guess the lower courts.

The verdict

In 2023, a federal jury in New York found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s, and for defaming her by branding her account a lie. The jury awarded her about $5 million. Trump had argued on appeal that the trial was unfair, objecting in particular to the judge's decision to let jurors hear from two other women who made similar accusations, and to see the 2005 "Access Hollywood" recording in which he spoke crudely about grabbing women. Carroll's lawyers countered that the evidence was relevant to showing a pattern, and urged the court not to take the case.

A separate, larger case

The $5 million judgment is distinct from a second case Carroll brought, in which a different jury awarded her roughly $83.3 million for defamation. That judgment is being appealed on its own track, and Trump's lawyers have signaled they may eventually ask the Supreme Court to weigh in on it as well. With interest, his total liability across the two cases now runs well over $100 million, according to CNN.

What happens now

Because Trump had already placed about $5.5 million in a court-controlled account after the 2023 verdict, Carroll is expected to be able to collect the $5 million relatively quickly. Trump has consistently denied Carroll's allegations and has characterized the litigation as politically motivated. His representatives have argued that the courts mistreated him; Carroll's side has cast Monday's outcome as a vindication. With the Supreme Court's refusal to intervene, that chapter of the long-running legal fight is, for the $5 million verdict at least, effectively closed.