The Supreme Court rejected President Trump's rehearing petition in the E. Jean Carroll sexual abuse case for the second time this summer, leaving a $5 million jury verdict intact and unchallenged, though a far larger judgment remains on the Court's docket.
The justices disclosed the denial Monday in a routine order list that offered no explanation and noted no dissents. Trump's attorneys had filed the rehearing petition after the Court declined his initial appeal in late June, arguing that a pending challenge to a separate $83.3 million Carroll defamation verdict raised presidential immunity questions that could affect the outcome of the $5 million case. The Court was unpersuaded.
Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, told CNBC Monday morning that the decision closes every remaining door:
"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."
A spokesman for Trump's legal team pushed back, calling the litigation politically motivated. He told CNBC:
"The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes."
The underlying case dates to a 2023 civil trial in which a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in the mid-1990s and for defaming her after she went public with the allegation in 2019. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million. National Review reported that the jury reached its verdict after just three hours of deliberation.
Trump's legal team raised several arguments across the appeals process. His attorneys contended that the trial judge improperly allowed testimony from two other women who alleged sexual misconduct by Trump decades ago, a ruling they said violated federal evidence rules. They also argued the case amounted to a distraction from presidential duties and that statements Trump made while in office should be shielded by the presidential immunity doctrine the Supreme Court itself had recognized, that presidents enjoy "presumptive immunity" for official acts.
None of those arguments gained traction. The Court first declined to hear the appeal in late June, prompting Trump to file the rehearing petition in early July. That petition framed the request around the still-pending $83.3 million case, arguing that it would "present vital questions concerning Presidential immunity for official statements" that are "likely to bear on the proper disposition" of the $5 million verdict. Monday's denial dispatched that argument without a word of explanation.
Carroll has already been paid. The online docket shows she received more than $5.6 million last month, the original $5 million award plus post-judgment interest. The Washington Examiner noted that Trump had paid out the judgment after attempting to delay payment pending the rehearing decision.
Monday's order does not end the broader Carroll litigation. Trump has separately asked the Supreme Court to overturn an $83.3 million defamation verdict from a second trial, a Manhattan civil court judgment handed down in 2024, and the Court has not yet acted on that petition. Breitbart reported that the larger judgment remains pending before the justices, with the Washington Examiner indicating a ruling on whether to hear the case is expected no earlier than October.
After the initial June denial, Trump signaled he would not back down. He posted on social media that he would "continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength," and called the case "really against the United States of America, and all it stands for," as AP News reported.
Trump's rehearing petition had rested on a specific procedural theory: that the immunity questions raised in the $83.3 million appeal could reshape the legal landscape of the $5 million case. His attorneys argued that certain Trump statements introduced at the first trial were "improperly introduced" and that a favorable ruling on immunity in the larger case would demonstrate as much. The Court's refusal to wait suggests the justices see the two verdicts as legally distinct, or at least saw no reason to keep the smaller case alive while the larger one is briefed.
The rehearing denial fits a pattern. The Court has handed Trump several legal setbacks in recent months, including its rejection of his executive order on birthright citizenship, even as Trump has continued to press his legal positions aggressively across multiple fronts.
One detail stands out in Monday's order: not a single justice noted a dissent. In a Court where individual justices regularly flag disagreement even on routine denials, the silence is notable. It means that none of the six conservative justices Trump appointed or who were expected to be sympathetic to presidential immunity claims saw fit to publicly object.
Just the News noted that the Court's refusal to explain its reasoning is standard practice for order-list denials, but the absence of any written dissent underscores that Trump's legal arguments failed to persuade even a single member of the bench.
Kaplan, Carroll's attorney, framed Monday's result in stark terms. She said Trump's "multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed" and that the ruling "ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions."
Trump has shown no shortage of willingness to take legal fights to the Supreme Court, and to vow immediate appeals when lower courts rule against him. But on the $5 million Carroll verdict, the road has run out. The check has been cashed. The only Carroll fight left is the $83.3 million case, and the Court will not take that up before October at the earliest.
However the larger case turns out, the $5 million verdict now stands as settled law. Whether the legal system treated Trump fairly in this case is a question his supporters will keep asking, but the Supreme Court, twice asked and twice declining, has given its answer.
