AT A GLANCE
- Trump filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review the $5 million civil judgment against him in E. Jean Carroll’s case.
- A 2023 jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, a writer who accused him of assaulting her in the 1990s.
- Federal courts have repeatedly upheld Carroll’s verdict despite Trump’s appeals.
- Carroll’s attorney declined to comment; Trump’s legal team called the case a “Democrat-funded travesty.”
Trump Petitions Supreme Court to Overturn E. Jean Carroll Sexual Abuse and Defamation Verdict
Former President Donald Trump has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a $5 million civil judgment that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. The 2023 jury verdict stemmed from Carroll’s claims that Trump assaulted her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s and later defamed her by dismissing her story as a “hoax” and “con job.”
In Monday’s filing, Trump’s attorneys argued that Carroll’s allegations were politically motivated, saying she waited “more than 20 years to falsely accuse Donald Trump” and that there were “no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation.”
The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the lower court’s judgment last December, ruling that U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan did not abuse his discretion by allowing testimony from two other women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who also accused Trump of sexual misconduct. Trump’s request for a rehearing was denied earlier this year.
This latest Supreme Court appeal comes after Trump’s failed attempt to overturn an $83 million defamation judgment in a related case. His legal team and political allies have characterized Carroll’s lawsuits as part of ongoing “liberal lawfare.”
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, declined to comment on the Supreme Court filing.
