RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 28 sourcesConservative-led High Court shoots down Trump’s second attempt to reverse defamation and sexual abuse verdict
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The Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump’s second attempt to reverse a jury’s verdict finding him liable for sexual abuse and defamation that awarded E. Jean Carroll more than $5 million.
Trump has been trying to claw back money that has already been paid out to the former Elle magazine writer while his lawyers asked the justices to reconsider their previous denial.
But on Monday, the justices shot him down a second time.
The Supreme Court is still considering his appeal of a second defamation verdict stemming from Trump’s years-long legal battle with Carroll, who was awarded an additional $83 million after the president repeatedly claimed he “never met” her while labeling her accusations a “hoax” and a “con job” — statements at the center of defamation lawsuits against him.
More than $5.6 million was disbursed to Carroll from a court-controlled escrow account on July 9.
Trump’s legal team then swiftly sought an injunction that would order Carroll to return the payment in the hopes that the Supreme Court would grant his legal Hail Mary.
Rather than accept several court rulings against him, Trump “has engaged in a series of maneuvers trying desperately to forestall payment,” lawyers for Carroll wrote in court filings last month.
That payment to Carroll — more than three years after the jury’s verdict — “should have been the end of this case,” her lawyers added.
“But Defendant now demands yet another unprecedented remedy,” they wrote. “The judgment here is final, the money has already been disbursed, and Carroll is entitled to keep it.”
Trump pledged he would not stop fighting against the verdict after the Supreme Court declined to take up his appeal in June.
“Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to ‘review’ a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met (Decades old celebrity photo line, standing with her husband, does not count!),” he wrote on Truth Social at the time.
“I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength,” he added.
A seven-year legal battle follows the first of two defamation lawsuits from Carroll, who accused Trump of assaulting her inside a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s.
A federal jury unanimously awarded her $5 million after finding him liable for sexual abuse and then defaming her with his denials. A separate jury in 2024 ordered the president to pay Carroll another $83 million in additional defamation damages.
On July 8, New York District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered a court-monitored escrow account to begin payments from the initial verdict after the Supreme Court rejected the president’s appeal.
Trump’s lawyers argued that Carroll should have waited until the Supreme Court “fully” decides whether to re-hear the president’s attempt to overturn the verdict, otherwise he faces an “unrecoverable loss” of millions of dollars that will cause him "irreparable harm.”
Her lawyers have argued that Trump has run out of options and is merely trying to “buy time so he can try to concoct some new basis to put off paying” Carroll.
“Defendant has lost before a jury, the district court, a unanimous Second Circuit panel, the full Second Circuit, en banc, and the Supreme Court of the United States. He agreed — in a signed stipulation — that Carroll could collect her judgment once his certiorari petition had been denied. That happened,” they wrote last month. “Carroll should not have to wait any longer.”
Meanwhile, Trump’s Department of Justice has joined his Supreme Court fight to prevent Carroll from receiving another $83 million from the president.
Trump took the extraordinary step of trying to replace himself as a defendant with the U.S. government as he fights for “immunity” from having to pay her.
A brief court filing signed by top Justice Department officials earlier this year claims there is “good cause” to pause the case and let the administration argue Trump’s immunity claims on his behalf.
The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether to hear that case.
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