US supreme court again rejects Trump’s bid to overturn E Jean Carroll verdict

The US supreme court has rejected for a second time Donald Trump’s attempt to overturn a jury verdict in 2023 that found him liable for sexually ​abusing writer E Jean Carroll, and later defaming her.

The court announced the decision in an unsigned order on Monday, without providing an explanation of their decision. The order just listed the US president’s petition, along with several other petitions, under “rehearings denied”.

Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, said: “We are pleased that the United States supreme court has declined again to hear this case. As a result, the jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court.”

In 2025, Trump – who has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations against him – asked the supreme court to review the case in 2025 and overturn the verdict. Carroll’s lawyers urged the justices to reject his petition and in June of this year, the supreme court declined to hear Trump’s appeal. His lawyers then asked the justices to reconsider.

The decision on Monday leaves intact the $5m civil judgment against Trump, that was returned by the jury after the two-week trial in 2023.

Trump had deposited this $5m jury award, along with interest, into a court-held account several weeks after the verdict. And in July, after the supreme court first declined Trump’s attempt to appeal the verdict, a Manhattan federal judge ordered that the funds be released and Carroll’s legal team said that the money, totaling about $5.6m, had been disbursed to her.

In 2024, a three-judge court panel at the second US circuit court of appeals in Manhattan also upheld the jury’s verdict.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday about the supreme court’s decision.

Carroll also brought a separate defamation suit against Trump in 2024, a separate federal jury ordered Trump to pay Carroll $83.3m in damages after concluding that he had defamed her in 2019.

Trump’s lawyers are appealing that ruling to the supreme court. And according to NBC News, the court is not set to act on that appeal until later this year.

Last September, a federal appeals court upheld the $83.3m jury award.