Supreme Court Shuts Door on Trump Appeal
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear an appeal from President Donald Trump, effectively locking in a $5 million verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll.
The refusal to intervene forces the former president to satisfy the judgment. When combined with a separate $83 million award from a 2019 defamation case, Trump now owes Carroll more than $100 million in total.
A Legal Timeline of Two Lawsuits
The litigation history spans several years. Carroll initiated her first lawsuit in 2019, alleging defamation. A second suit followed in 2022, adding claims of battery.
Though the second case reached trial first, it centered on allegations that Trump sexually assaulted Carroll in a New York department store in the mid-1990s. The jury ultimately found he defamed her by claiming she fabricated the encounter to bolster his own book sales.
Trump’s Challenge to Judicial Conduct
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing. His appeal focused on the conduct of U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan.
The president’s legal team argued that Judge Kaplan committed reversible errors by allowing the jury to hear testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual assault. The high court’s decision leaves those lower court proceedings undisturbed.
Carroll’s Counsel Claims Finality
Following the announcement, Carroll’s legal team framed the court’s inaction as the end of the road for the dispute.
„Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll,“ said her lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.
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