The US Supreme Court on Monday again declined to hear President Donald Trump’s petition to appeal the sexual assault and defamation case brought against him by writer E. Jean Carroll.
The denial comes a month and a half after the court’s initial refusal to grant the president’s appeal of the $5 million jury trial judgment against him. Carroll collected her award, plus interest, last month—three years after the 2023 verdict.
The case developed from statements Trump made in 2022 concerning Carroll. In his petition for the court to reconsider its initial denial, the president argued the trial was “propped up by a series of indefensible evidentiary rulings,” particularly testimony from other alleged Trump assault victims. The president requested the court to “review…whether the judgment could stand even though [Carroll] relied on evidence that was inadmissible according to President Trump.”
On first appeal, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit found that such testimony was permissible under federal evidence rules 413 and 415, which generally permit evidence “that the defendant committed any other sexual assault” in such cases. The Supreme Court did not comment on the lower court’s reasoning in its denial.
Trump’s petition came alongside a separate petition to the court over a separate defamation case brought by Carroll against the president, in which a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in 2024. That case largely involves statements made by Trump in 2019 during his first presidential term. Trump has argued the statements were “official Presidential acts [and] may not be used as evidence to impose liability for other conduct,” citing the Supreme Court’s decision in Trump v. US, which held that presidents are immune from criminal prosecution for official acts.
The court will likely announce in early September whether it will hear the concurrent appeal.