Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Second Carroll Appeal
Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Second Carroll Appeal
The News
The Supreme Court on Monday, Aug. 17, refused for a second time to hear President Donald Trump's appeal of the $5 million civil verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll, cementing her win.
The justices denied Trump's rehearing petition on a routine order list, with no explanation — standard practice for such orders, according to MS NOW.
USA Today reports the ruling leaves Trump on the hook for more than $5.6 million, the $5 million judgment plus interest, money he already paid after the court first turned him away in June.
A separate Trump petition over a second Carroll case — an $83.3 million defamation judgment — is still pending before the court.
Timeline
Carroll says Trump sexually assaulted her at a New York City department store, an allegation she made public in 2019.
Trump denies the claim and says Carroll invented it to sell a book. She sues him months later.
Trump repeats the denial in a social media post, between his two presidential terms. Carroll sues again under a special window New York granted to sexual abuse victims.
A New York jury finds Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in 1996 and defaming her in 2022, awarding $5 million.
A Manhattan civil jury awards Carroll $83.3 million over Trump's 2019 statements, made during his first term. Federal appeals courts later uphold both judgments.
The Supreme Court declines Trump's first petition in the $5 million case. The federal trial judge in New York orders the funds released to Carroll, and Trump pays.
Trump's lawyers file a rare rehearing petition, asking the justices to take a second look.
The court denies the rehearing request.
Reactions
Trump's lawyers argued a second look was warranted because the $5 million case is tied to the $83.3 million appeal they have asked the court to hear. In that case they contend he is entitled to immunity for his 2019 comments because he made them as president.
"That use of official Presidential statements matters, because this Court has made clear that official Presidential acts may not be used as evidence to impose liability for other conduct," his lawyers told the justices, invoking the court's 2024 ruling on presidential immunity, according to USA Today.
Trump's team did not raise the immunity argument in the first appeal; his lawyers said they leaned on other arguments because the 2024 immunity decision had not yet come down.
MS NOW's legal writer Jordan Rubin called the denial expected, noting the court rarely grants rehearing petitions and no justice had signaled interest when the initial petition was denied in June.
What's Next
Trump had also asked the New York-based federal appeals court to claw the $5 million back into a court-controlled account while his rehearing petition was alive. That court said it would hold off ruling until Tuesday in case the justices acted Monday — which they did. MS NOW reports the denial should render the clawback motion moot, effectively ending the litigation over the $5 million and leaving the money with Carroll.
The $83.3 million judgment is the live fight now. Carroll will get a chance to file written arguments urging the justices to reject that petition, and MS NOW reports a decision on whether to hear it is unlikely before the fall. It takes four justices to grant review.
More
Rehearing petitions at the Supreme Court are rare, and grants are rarer still. Both Carroll verdicts came from civil juries in New York; neither is a criminal case, and the immunity question raised in the larger case turns on statements Trump made while in office in 2019 rather than the 2022 post at the center of the $5 million verdict.
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