Supreme Court Deals Trump a Final Blow in $5 Million Case

The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump’s request to reconsider its earlier decision declining to hear his challenge to the $5 million civil verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll.

In a one-sentence order that offered no explanation and listed no dissents, the justices slammed the door on the long-shot rehearing request. The Court had already declined in June to take the case. Rehearing petitions are almost never granted and require substantial “intervening circumstances.”

A Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll based on her allegations of an assault in a luxury store in the 1990s. Trump has denied the account. His appeal argued that jurors should not have heard testimony from other women who accused him of assault. After the June denial, Carroll received the $5 million judgment plus interest last month.

Trump’s attorneys had urged the Court to hold the petition in light of a separate, still-pending $83.3 million defamation case in which Trump is asserting presidential immunity. “That is a paradigmatic reason to at least hold a petition,” his lawyers wrote. “When a forthcoming or pending case may affect the proper disposition of another petition, the Court may hold the related petition, and later resolve it in light of the lead case.”

Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan said the first verdict is now final. “We are pleased that the United States Supreme Court has declined again to hear this case,” she stated. “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.”

A Trump legal team spokesperson responded: “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. President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again.” The ruling leaves the $5 million judgment intact while the larger related case continues its slower path through the courts.