The Supreme Court declined to hear President Donald Trump’s appeal of a $5 million civil verdict awarded to writer E. Jean Carroll, leaving in place a jury finding that he sexually abused her in the mid-1990s and later defamed her when he denied the allegation.
The justices issued a brief order Monday turning away Trump’s request for review. The Court did not explain its decision, which is common when it declines to take a case, and no dissents were noted.
The verdict came from a 2023 federal civil trial in New York. Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former television host, testified that Trump attacked her during a chance encounter at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury department store in Manhattan near Trump Tower.
Jurors found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her in 2022, when he denied her allegation. Trump has denied Carroll’s claims.
Trump’s lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to review what they described as improper evidence rulings by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the trial. Their challenge focused in part on the judge’s decision to allow testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades earlier.
The former president’s attorneys argued that the testimony and other evidence allowed at trial unfairly influenced the jury. They claimed the rulings violated federal evidence rules and made the trial unfair.
Carroll’s lawyers urged the justices to leave the verdict alone. Her attorneys argued that the testimony was relevant because the accounts were similar and because federal courts have allowed comparable testimony in other sexual misconduct cases.
The dispute centered on a common question in civil and criminal trials: what evidence a jury should be allowed to hear. Federal judges may exclude evidence if its risk of unfair prejudice outweighs its value in helping jurors decide a key issue. Trump’s lawyers claimed the other women’s testimony crossed that line. Carroll’s lawyers argued it helped show a pattern relevant to the claims before the jury.
The verdict included damages tied to both sexual abuse and defamation. Carroll’s civil case claimed Trump damaged her by publicly denying her account in 2022 and making statements that attacked her credibility.
A separate jury later awarded Carroll $83.3 million after a second defamation trial involving different statements by Trump. His lawyers have said he also plans to appeal that verdict.
The Supreme Court’s order leaves the $5 million judgment in place.
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