Supreme Court Rejects Trump's Final Appeal in E. Jean Carroll $5 Million Case
ContestedRigor 5820 sources
The Story
The Supreme Court on Monday denied a request from President Donald Trump to reconsider his appeal of writer E. Jean Carroll’s $5 million lawsuit. This order follows the Supreme Court's initial decline to take up Trump's argument in June. The decision marks the end of Trump's efforts to overturn a $5 million jury award to Carroll. Carroll's representatives confirmed the $5 million payment was made in July, comprising the damages award plus post-judgment interest, totaling over $5.6 million. The Supreme Court issued a one-sentence order without explanation or noted dissents. Rehearings at the Supreme Court are rarely granted, with court rules prescribing them only for substantial intervening circumstances. No request for a rehearing has been granted since the 1960s. A federal jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s and for defaming her in an October 2022 social media post. In that post, Trump called her allegations a hoax and a lie and stated, "This woman is not my type!" Trump has repeatedly denied the allegations. In a separate trial in 2024, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million in damages to Carroll for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual abuse. Trump is appealing that $83.3 million judgment, with a petition currently pending before the justices, who are expected to decide later this year whether to take up the case. In his appeal for the $83.3 million case, Trump alleges his 2019 comments were official statements as president and therefore immune from legal action. Roberta Kaplan, Carroll’s attorney, stated that 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. A spokesman for Trump's legal team called the Carroll cases "Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes." The Supreme Court has not yet made a decision on Trump's appeal of the separate $83.3 million defamation verdict.
The Spread
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What they agree on
- The Supreme Court on Monday rejected President Donald Trump's request to reconsider his appeal in the E. Jean Carroll $5 million lawsuit.
- This decision finalizes the $5 million jury award to E. Jean Carroll.
- A jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her in a 2022 social media post.
- E. Jean Carroll has received the $5 million payment, plus interest, totaling over $5.6 million.
- The Supreme Court's order was a one-sentence denial without explanation or noted dissents.
Where they split
- Breitbart News and PJ Media frame the Supreme Court's decision as a denial of Trump's request to reconsider an appeal, while ABC News and The Washington Post emphasize it as the rejection of a "final" appeal.
- Independent outlets like Raw Story and PJ Media include strong editorialized language in their headlines, such as "Supreme Court just slammed the door on Trump" or "Supreme Court Gives Trump the Finger," which is absent from US major news sources.
- The Epoch Times (quoted by PJ Media) and PJ Media itself question the objective evidence in Carroll's case and describe the verdict as "rigged," a perspective not reflected in other outlets.
- Some outlets, including CNBC and NBC News, explicitly state that the decision leaves Trump with "no remaining options" to challenge the $5 million verdict, while others focus more broadly on the rejection of the appeal.
Source Perspectives
Left8 sources
Center6 sources