The president asked the high court to toss a $5 million judgment against him.
President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to overturn a $5 million judgment that he sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll, calling her allegations “facially implausible” and “politically motivated.”
The judgment, issued by a federal jury in 2023, concerned Carroll’s claim that Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s and then denied her account of rape, calling her a liar. Carroll also won a $83.3 million judgment in 2024 after a separate jury found Trump defamed her with an additional set of remarks about the same claims.
In his filing to the Supreme Court, Trump said the district court erred with a “‘series of indefensible evidentiary rulings,’ improperly admitting highly inflammatory propensity evidence against President Trump,” including testimony from women other than Carroll who made additional claims of sexual misconduct against Trump.
If Trump were to succeed in getting the Supreme Court to overturn the earlier judgment, it would jeopardize the latter, much larger judgment against the president. The votes of four justices will be needed for the Supreme Court to take the case.
Last year, a panel of judges on the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the trial judge did not violate Trump’s rights when he allowed Carroll to present evidence suggesting Trump had committed other sexual assaults. That evidence included Trump’s comments on the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape as well as testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual assault.
And earlier this year, a separate panel of judges from the same appeals court upheld the $83.3 million judgment, rejecting the president’s argument that he should have been protected by presidential immunity because he made those defamatory comments during his first term in office.
The justices are likely to make a decision early next year on whether to grant review of the verdict.