Supreme Court rejects Trump appeal in E. Jean Carroll case

The Supreme Court refused on Monday to hear Donald Trump’s appeal in the E. Jean Carroll case, leaving intact a $5 million jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming the writer. The court acted without comment and with no noted dissent, a move that gives the judgment the force of finality unless some separate, extraordinary step is pursued.

The refusal means the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling remains in place. That appeals court decided the case on Dec. 30, 2024, and later denied rehearing on June 13, 2025. The Supreme Court docket, 25-573, was tied to the Second Circuit case, 23-793, and the dispute had already run through years of litigation after Carroll brought her claims in federal court in New York.

Carroll’s case centers on her allegation that Trump assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in New York in 1996. At trial, jurors heard evidence that Trump said should have been excluded, including testimony about two prior alleged sexual assaults and the Access Hollywood tape. The jury nevertheless returned the $5 million award, which has now survived the full ordinary appellate route.

Trump’s defeat at the high court narrows his remaining options in the case. The Supreme Court’s refusal to take up the appeal does not revisit the facts, but it does mean the lower court judgment stands and the civil verdict against him remains enforceable. For Carroll, it locks in a finding that a jury concluded Trump sexually abused and defamed her.

The ruling also sits alongside Carroll’s separate defamation case, in which a jury awarded her $83.3 million after Trump’s public attacks on her and a federal appeals court later upheld that award. Together, the two judgments show how civil verdicts against a former president can survive repeated challenges, even when the Supreme Court has previously been receptive to some Trump appeals tied to his presidency.