Donald Trump has been dealt a humiliating blow in his bitter fight to avoid paying more than $5.6 million in damages to a woman he sexually assaulted and defamed, after the Supreme Court rebuffed his bid to reconsider the case.
In another brutal takedown for the president, the court he helped reshape rejected Trump’s request for the second time on Monday, leaving him with no other legal options to avoid paying New York writer E. Jean Carroll $5.6 million in damages.
The case began after Carroll accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and then defaming her when she eventually went public with the allegations.
He has repeatedly denied this, at one stage even declaring that he could not have possibly abused Carroll because she “is not my type.”
But a civil jury rejected Trump’s claims in 2023 and found him liable for sexual assault and defamation.
Trump appealed, arguing in part that the trial judge had erred by allowing jurors to hear evidence about other women who had also accused him of sexual misconduct, as well as the explosive 2005 “Access Hollywood” tape in which Trump was caught bragging about grabbing women’s genitals.
However, his attempts to overturn the original decision failed, first in the Second Circuit and then in the Supreme Court in late June, when it refused to hear the case.
The latest rebuff—one of two civil cases he lost to Carroll—means that she can now do what she pleases with her multi-million payment.
But Trump is still attempting to kill another, larger set of damages in which Carroll was awarded $83.3 million, based on the conclusion that Trump defamed her in 2019 when he first denied her allegations.
Trump’s lawyers have argued he should have immunity for his 2019 comments because he made them while serving as president, a reference to the Supreme Court’s extraordinary ruling that presidents can’t be criminally prosecuted for “official” acts taken by a president.
“That use of official Presidential statements matters, because this Court has made clear that official Presidential acts may not be used as evidence to impose liability for other conduct,” his lawyers told the justices.
Despite the bench being dominated by six conservatives—including three justices nominated by Trump—it is not the first time that the court has ruled against him in recent months.
In June, the court struck down his bid to end birthright citizenship for millions of Americans. Earlier this year, it also found his signature tariff policy was unlawful, a decision that continues to enrage the president.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the White House and Carroll for comment.
