The Supreme Court on Monday declined for the second time to consider President Trump’s appeal of a jury’s conclusion that he is liable for sexual abuse and defamation of the writer E. Jean Carroll.
The high court announced the decision in an unsigned order on Monday, reiterating its position from June. The civil federal jury in 2023 found that Mr. Trump should pay $5 million in damages to Carroll after a trial in New York focused on allegations that he forcefully penetrated her with his fingers in a department store changing room in the 1990s, and then lied about it when she went public in 2019.
The unanimous jury found that the evidence more likely than not supported Carroll’s claims. The jury deliberated for less than three hours. Mr. Trump has forcefully denied Carroll’s claims, calling them a “hoax” while questioning her character. He called no witnesses during the trial and did not attend. His denials have been at the center of defamation claims in this case as well as a separate 2024 trial.
Mr. Trump was in attendance for much of the second trial, testifying briefly, but leaving minutes before that jury awarded Carroll more than $83 million on related defamation allegations. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, had asked the jury to award Carroll enough to “make him stop” defaming her client. He has continued to deny her allegations.
In taking that case to the Supreme Court, Mr. Trump’s legal team claimed an appeals panel neglected to rule on whether he had presidential immunity when making the statements about Carroll. The Supreme Court has yet to rule on his effort. In response to Monday’s order, a spokesman for Mr. Trump’s legal team sent a statement it has used for developments in the Carroll matters throughout the summer, referring to them as the “Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.” The Court’s decision effectively bars any further legal challenge to the jury’s verdict, a move that has been widely interpreted as a strategic shift by the Trump campaign’s legal team, aiming to minimize potential damage to his reputation and political leverage.
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Source: CBS News
