The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected President Trump’s push to throw out the jury’s findings on sexual assault.
Published June 29, 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear President Donald Trump’s bid to overturn a $5 million verdict in favor of E-Jean Carroll in a case in which a jury found him liable for sexually abusing a former magazine columnist and then defaming her.
The justices rejected Trump’s appeal on Monday after a lower court upheld the 2023 jury verdict and rejected Trump’s argument that the trial was unfair because the jury was impermissibly forced to hear evidence of past sexual misconduct allegations.
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President Trump has been at loggerheads with Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, since 2019 when she released excerpts from a memoir in which she claims Trump raped her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in 1996.
The case, which resulted in a $5 million judgment, involved Trump’s comments in a 2022 social media post in which he called Carroll’s claims a “hoax” and “the work of a fraudster.”
“This woman is not my type!” Trump added to the post.
Carroll sued Trump in federal court in Manhattan. A jury in 2023 determined that Trump sexually abused and defamed Carroll and awarded her $5 million in damages.
Trump’s lawyers argued that the allegations that led to the verdict were supported by “extremely inflammatory” evidentiary rulings, including a ruling that admitted testimony from two other women who accused Trump of sexual abuse decades ago.
The Manhattan-based 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the 2024 ruling, ruling that the evidence established a “repetitive and idiosyncratic pattern of behavior” consistent with Carroll’s claims.
Trump’s lawyers told the Supreme Court that the trial judge “erroneously allowed the jury to hear testimony about decades-old, unverified and irrelevant allegations,” ignoring federal rules governing the presentation of evidence in lawsuits.
Carroll’s lawyer had urged the judge to let the case go. They argued that the other women’s testimony was relevant because the allegations were similar and Judge Lewis Kaplan’s ruling was consistent with rulings by other judges across the country.
The Supreme Court’s decision comes as it hands down the biggest case of the season, one that is key to many of President Trump’s agenda.
President Trump responded to the court’s decision Monday afternoon.
President Trump posted on social media: “I will continue to fight vigorously against the use of force and court proceedings against me, including the ridiculous claims of defamation.” “This lawsuit is truly about the United States of America and everything it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to any other president or candidate!”
The jury also awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages following his second defamation trial in 2019, when Trump first denied the allegations against her. President Trump has also appealed the ruling, although it has not yet gone to the Supreme Court.
