Supreme Court shoots down Trump’s final bid to review E. Jean Carroll sexual assault case

President Trump was forced to pay the former magazine columnist $5 million after the high court refused to review a previous petition in June.WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s long-shot bid to review a civil case finding that he sexually abused magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll.Trump asked the justices to review whether several evidentiary rulings at trial should invalidate a $5 million judgment against him for defaming and sexually abusing Carroll in an upscale Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s.In June, the Supreme Court denied Trump’s petition — known as Carroll II — on those grounds. But he asked the justices to reconsider based on another case against Carroll — known as Carroll I — also on appeal at the high court.Per the court’s custom, the justices rejected Trump’s rehearing request in Carroll II without explanation. There were no noted dissents.According to Trump, both cases relied on statements that couldn’t be used as evidence because he made them while president and therefore they fall under immunity protections.“Carroll I will present important questions concerning presidential immunity for statements President Trump made in 2019, while serving as president, and through official White House channels,” Trump wrote in his rehearing request. “Those questions would bear on the proper disposition of Carroll II, because this court has held that official presidential acts may not be used as evidence to impose liability for other conduct.”Carroll, a former Elle magazine advice columnist, testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly run-in at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in 1996 into a violent rape after they playfully entered the store’s dressing room.She went public with her story three decades later in 2019, during Trump’s first term as president, in her book “What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal,” with an excerpt published in New York Magazine.She sued three years later, empowered by a new law in the Empire State that opened a small window for adult survivors of sexual assault to seek civil relief for claims otherwise barred by the statute of limitations. In addition to battery, she brought a civil defamation claim pointing to Trump’s broad denials of the rape accusations and his ensuing denigration of her appearance.The jury found Trump liable on both counts, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages: $2 million in compensatory damages for Trump sexually abusing her, plus $20,000 in punitive damages; and $1.7 million in damages for a reputation repair program, plus $1 million in other damages on the defamation count.In Carroll I — the appeal still pending before the court — a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in punitive and compensatory damages over comments Trump made while in office during his first term after she first made the accusations publicly. Trump’s certiorari petition was filed in July, and Carroll is scheduled to file her response later this month.The high court won’t review the appeal until after the start of its new term in October.Subscribe to our free newslettersOur weekly newsletter Closing Arguments offers the latest about ongoing trials, major litigation and rulings in courthouses around the U.S. and the world, while the monthly Under the Lights dishes the legal dirt from Hollywood, sports, Big Tech and the arts.Additional Reads