SCOTUS Denies Trump Appeal In High-Stakes Defamation Case

The Supreme Court announced on Monday that it would not hear President Donald Trump’s appeal in the $5 million sex abuse and defamation case brought by E. Jean Carroll.

The high court’s refusal to hear the case means that Trump is on the hook to pay out $5 million to Carroll, 82, pursuant to the case that was decided in May of 2023. Carroll — who claims that Trump sexually abused her in the fitting room of a Bergdorf Goodman in the 1990s — argued that he had also defamed her by denying he did so, declaring that she was “not his type,” and suggesting that she’d invented the claim in order to drive book sales.

Trump made it clear immediately that the fight was not over. “Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to ‘review’ a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met (Decades old celebrity photo line, standing with her husband, does not count!),” Trump said via his Truth Social platform.

“I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength,” he continued. “This Case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to another President, or Candidate to be! New York State created a Law, for an instant speck of time, going back many decades, in order to wrongfully ‘nab’ me. It was tailormade, and this Injustice cannot be allowed to stand!”

Trump and Carroll are still involved in another lawsuit that could potentially result in a much higher payout. A January 2024 verdict ordered Trump to pay out more than $83 million in additional damages. The jury in that case determined that Trump should pay Carroll $65 million in punitive damages, $11 million to help her rebuild her reputation, and $7.3 million for pain and suffering.

The two cases, in an interesting twist, were actually decided out of order: the $5 million ruling (2023) stemmed from a case initially filed in 2022, while the $83 million ruling (2024) was the result of a suit filed in 2019. As Trump pointed out in his post, Carroll had only been able to file the second suit because of a new law enacted in New York that allows sex abuse victims to file new civil claims related to previous incidents.