Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Second Appeal in Carroll Case

The U.S. Supreme Court has once again rejected Donald Trump's attempt to overturn a jury verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E Jean Carroll, according to multiple reports. The court announced the decision in an unsigned order on Monday without providing an explanation.

Trump had asked the justices to reconsider their refusal to hear his appeal after they initially declined in June. This is the second time the high court has rejected Trump's bid to overturn the verdict, leaving intact a $5 million civil judgment against him that was returned by the jury following a two-week trial in 2023.

Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's attorney, expressed satisfaction with the Supreme Court's decision. She stated: "We are pleased that the United States supreme court has declined again to hear this case. As a result, the jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court."

Trump had deposited $5 million into a court-held account shortly after the initial verdict. In July, after the Supreme Court first declined to hear his appeal, a Manhattan federal judge ordered that the funds be released. Carroll's legal team confirmed that approximately $5.8 million, including interest, had been disbursed to her.

The case arose from a federal lawsuit Ms Carroll filed in New York City alleging that Mr Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996. The defamation claims relate to statements he made about her after his first term in office, in which he described her claims as a "con job" and "hoax". Jurors in that case decided in 2023 that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and defamed her, but did not find that he raped her, as she had claimed.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and maintains he does not know Carroll. His lawyers contend that the trial was unfair. In the separate appeal for the $83.3 million jury verdict for defamation, Trump's legal team argues that presidential immunity shields him from Ms Carroll's claims and that lower courts wrongly decided he had forfeited that defence.

Rehearings in the Supreme Court are rarely granted. Per court regulations, such petitions are only permitted under "intervening circumstances of a substantial or controlling effect." Trump's legal team believes that the defamation case relating to remarks made while in office should be covered by presidential immunity.

A spokesperson for the President’s legal team issued a statement: "The American people stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the witch hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll hoaxes."