The Supreme Court refused Monday to hear President Donald Trump’s appeal of a jury verdict finding he sexually abused and defamed writer E. Jean Carroll, leaving intact a $5 million civil judgment against him. The decision marks the final rejection of Trump’s legal challenges to overturn the 2023 jury findings.

Court Rejects Presidential Challenge

The justices turned away Trump’s appeal without comment, ending his efforts to reverse the verdict through the nation’s highest court. The case originated from Carroll’s federal lawsuit alleging Trump assaulted her in a department store dressing room in 1996. Additional defamation claims stemmed from Trump’s post-presidency statements calling her accusations a “con job” and “hoax.” The jury sided with Carroll on both the assault and defamation charges.

Trump immediately blasted the ruling on social media, vowing to continue fighting “with all of my power and strength” despite the Supreme Court’s apparent finality. He insisted Carroll was “a woman I never met,” dismissing photographic evidence of them together. Trump characterized the case as an attack on “the United States of America, and all it stands for,” declaring “this Injustice cannot be allowed to stand.”

Legal Arguments And Evidence Disputed

Trump’s legal team had argued that Manhattan-based District Judge Lewis Kaplan improperly allowed testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff. His attorneys also objected to jurors viewing the recorded conversation where Trump made disparaging comments about women. The defense claimed these decisions compensated for Carroll’s lack of direct evidence regarding her specific allegations.

Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, stated the decision “affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict” and ends Trump’s quest to avoid accountability. Carroll’s legal team noted she told two friends about the alleged attack shortly after it occurred, and both testified at trial. Her attorneys defended the admitted evidence as relevant to establishing Trump’s pattern of behavior and propensity for such actions.

Background And Ongoing Implications

Carroll first publicly made her allegations in 2019 and filed an initial defamation lawsuit that year after Trump called her a liar. She filed a second suit in 2022 under a New York state law assisting survivors of decades-old sexual assault. That second case, which included post-presidency defamation claims, proceeded to trial first and produced the verdict the Supreme Court declined to review Monday. A spokesman for Trump’s legal team called the case a “Democrat-funded travesty” and demanded an end to what they termed political prosecutions.