The Supreme Court on Monday delivered a humiliating blow to President Donald Trump when it rejected his push to throw out a jury’s finding that the president sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll.
The president, 80, has been demanding that the findings that led to the $5 million civil verdict be tossed, but the country’s highest court declined to take up the case in an unexplained order. No justices publicly dissented—strongly suggesting a unanimous court decision.
A federal jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her and awarded the writer $5 million in damages. The jury found that the assault occurred in a department store dressing room in the 1990s.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the judge in the case broke federal evidence rules and claimed it was a distraction from Trump’s duties as president, despite the verdict being reached before he returned to the White House last year.
The court’s decision means that the president will now have to pay Carroll the $5 million.
Trump, who has repeatedly denied wrongdoing, claimed that the judge who oversaw the civil trial, District Judge Lewis Kaplan, should not have allowed the jury to hear testimony from two other women who both accused Trump of sexual assault years ago.
His team also argued the judge should not have allowed the jurors to watch the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape, which captured Trump bragging on a hot mic in 2005 about being able to grope women because he was famous.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team responded to the Daily Beast’s question about the conservative-majority Supreme Court’s decision not to take the case.
“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 spokesman said in a statement.
The president later delivered his own reaction on Truth Social, where he claimed the case was “really against the United States of America” and raged, “Injustice cannot be allowed to stand!”
The Daily Beast also asked Carroll’s legal team for comment, but did not immediately hear back. They had urged the justices not to take up Trump’s appeal.
Carroll sued Trump in 2019 for defamation and then again in 2022. In an unusual move, the 2022 lawsuit went to trial first and resulted in the $5 million verdict. Last year, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the jury’s verdict. In the end, the president appealed to the Supreme Court.
The 2019 case went to trial second and resulted in the $83 million verdict against the president, who, with interest, owes Carroll more than $100 million in total. Trump’s team is still expected to appeal the $83 million verdict case to the country’s highest court.
The court’s decision not to take up the case comes as the Supreme Court is set to deliver rulings on some of the biggest cases of the term this week before a summer recess.
While the court has already given the president a series of wins regarding his immigration policy, the court’s decision on birthright citizenship looms large.
Trump has repeatedly attacked the Supreme Court and individual justices for not ruling in his favor in the past, including their strike to his economic policy when they restricted his presidential power to impose tariffs earlier this year.
In May, it was revealed that Carroll was the latest in a series of perceived Trump enemies whom the Trump administration has targeted. According to multiple reports, the Justice Department was investigating a nonprofit tied to funding Carroll’s legal battle with Trump.
