Trump spurned again by Supreme Court on $5 million E. Jean Carroll award

Greg Stohr, Bloomberg News on Aug 17, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court for a second time rejected President Donald Trump’s request to overturn a jury finding that he sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll.

The rebuff leaves intact a $5 million award that Carroll collected after the high court’s June 29 refusal to take up Trump’s appeal. The president had asked the court to take the unusual step of changing its mind on hearing his arguments in the case.

Trump is separately asking the court to consider overturning an $83.3 million jury verdict Carroll won in a second defamation suit against him. The court will probably say this fall whether it will hear that appeal, which raises different legal issues because it centers on statements Trump made while serving as president.

Trump’s appeal in the $5 million case originally raised only technical evidentiary questions. He argued that jurors shouldn’t have been allowed to hear testimony about two prior alleged sexual assaults or listen to the "Access Hollywood" tape in which he boasted in vulgar terms that he could grab women by their genitalia without consent.

Trump then tried to broaden the appeal in his rehearing petition by saying it implicated presidential immunity and trying to link it to the $83 million case.

Trump contends he is immune from being sued in the larger dispute because his allegedly defamatory statements were made while he was president. That appeal relies in large part on the 2024 Supreme Court ruling that gave presidents broad criminal immunity for official actions taken while in office.

Although the $5 million case focused on comments Trump made in between his two White House terms, he argued that the jury’s finding was tainted because the trial also included some discussion of statements he made as president. Trump urged the high court to at least defer finalizing the verdict until it resolves his appeal in the $83 million case.

In the case that produced the smaller verdict, Carroll testified that Trump pinned her against a wall and attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in 1996. Trump has denied the allegations. Carroll said Trump then defamed her by posting on social media in 2022 that her allegations were a “complete con job,” a “Hoax” and a “Scam.”

The case is Trump v. Carroll, 25-573.