The US Supreme Court on Monday declined Donald Trump's request to review a New York jury's 2023 verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing writer E Jean Carroll and then defaming her. The justices did not provide an explanation or reasoning, and no public dissents were noted. The decision leaves intact the $5 million civil judgment against Trump that was returned by the jury after the two-week trial in 2023.
Appeals Process Exhausted
The Supreme Court's decision comes after a three-judge court panel at the Second US Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan upheld the jury's verdict in 2024 and rejected Trump's arguments that the trial was unfair because the judge let jurors hear evidence of his alleged past sexual misconduct. Trump reacted to the Supreme Court's decision by writing on Truth Social: "Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to 'review' a Fake Case brought against me."
Roberta Kaplan, Carroll's attorney, issued a statement in response to the decision: "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. His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today's ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions."
Background of the Case
In 2025, Trump, who has repeatedly denied the allegations against him, asked the Supreme Court to review the case and overturn the verdict. Lawyers for Carroll asked the judges to reject the request. Trump has been battling Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, since she published an excerpt from her memoir in 2019 in which she alleged that Trump had raped her in the 1990s in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan. She filed the lawsuit three years later. Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll's claims and accused her of lying.
Other Developments in Trump Administration
In a separate ruling on Monday, the Supreme Court handed Trump and all future presidents the power to fire leaders of independent agencies or commissions, overturning 90 years of court precedent curbing executive power. The Trump administration is also attempting to shrink public comment periods for fossil fuel leasing on federal land while shifting financial risks of cleanup to taxpayers and allowing for more planet-warming emissions, according to advocates. Additionally, the Trump administration plans to evaluate the performance of the California Coastal Commission, escalating a dispute with state Democratic leaders over energy production.
Trump claimed that Iran has agreed to hold talks in Doha after recent clashes in the Strait of Hormuz. The Supreme Court also upheld a law allowing mail-in ballots that arrive after election day to be counted in more than a dozen states, siding against national Republicans and the Trump administration.
In other news, more than 100 Venezuelans recently deported from the US were missing after a hotel collapse caused by earthquakes in Venezuela. The US military is racing to vaccinate new recruits after a two-month halt on mandatory flu shots. The Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement's use of sprawling warrants for smartphone location data requires privacy protections under the Fourth Amendment. The US Department of Interior released the names of three firefighters killed while containing wildfires along the Utah-Colorado border.
