Trump Must Pay E. Jean Carroll After SCOTUS Declines to Hear His Appeal

President Donald Trump will have to pay the $5 million in damages he owes writer E. Jean Carroll after the Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal of the verdict, which was reached after a 2023 civil trial in which he was found liable for sexual abuse and defamation.

Trump appeared to be surprised by the high court’s decision to not review the jury verdict from Carroll’s suit.

“Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to “review” a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, committing to fighting what he called a “weaponization” case against him with “power and strength.”

Carroll alleges Trump sexually assaulted her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in 1996. When she wrote about the assault in her memoir in 2019, Trump unequivocally denied the allegation, telling a reporter from The Hill “she’s [Carroll] not my type.” Carroll filed a lawsuit, known as Carroll I, against Trump shortly after, alleging he had defamed her character.

“I’ve never met this person in my life. She is trying to sell a new book; that should indicate her motivation. It should be sold in the fiction section,” Trump said in a statement at the time.

Carroll was unable to seek damages for the sexual abuse becuase of a 20-year statute of limitations. But the state of New York passed the Adult Survivors Act (ASA) in 2022, which allowed victims to file lawsuits for time-expired cases for one year. The new law opened the door for Carroll to seek damages for the sexual abuse, which she pursued in a separate lawsuit, known as Carroll II.

“New York State created a Law, for an instant speck of time, going back many decades, in order to wrongfully “nab” me. It was tailormade, and this Injustice cannot be allowed to stand!” Trump wrote Monday in his Truth Social post.

The second lawsuit sought damages for battery relating to the assault, as well as defamation stemming from additional statements Trump posted on Truth Social in 2022 calling her case a “hoax” and a “complete con job.”

In Carroll II, a jury found Trump liable for both battery and defamation in 2023, requiring Trump to pay $5 million in damages to Carroll. In Carroll I, which was held up for years in lower courts, a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in damages in 2024 for Trump’s initial defamatory comments.

Trump appealed the verdicts in both Carroll I and II, and the Supreme Court placed his petition for the $5 million judgement in Carroll II on the docket in November 2025 — before declining to take up the case Monday.

The president’s appeal in Carroll I for the $83.3 million in damages is still active, meaning the case could find its way to the Supreme Court eventually.