The court’s decision ends Trump’s unusual effort to revisit a declined appeal in Carroll’s $5 million case. It does not resolve their separate fight over an $83 million defamation judgment.
The Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump’s latest bid to block the award to E. Jean Carroll, leaving in place the $5 million jury verdict in Carroll’s sexual abuse and defamation case. Trump sought to overturn the award after the justices had already declined to hear his initial appeal, making this a second unsuccessful attempt to stop the verdict from taking effect.
The decision matters because it shuts down Trump’s route to overturning this particular judgment at the nation’s highest court. It also draws a clear line between the resolved $5 million case and Carroll’s separate $83 million defamation judgment, which remains before the Supreme Court on a different legal question.
A rare request gets rejected
The Supreme Court did not issue a written opinion explaining its latest action. But its refusal means the justices would not reconsider their earlier decision declining to take up Trump’s appeal of the $5 million verdict.
Requests asking the court to reconsider a denial of review are highly unusual and are almost never granted. The court receives thousands of petitions each term and hears only a small fraction. A refusal to hear a case does not necessarily signal agreement with every part of the lower-court ruling; it means the lower-court outcome remains in force.
For Trump, the practical result is straightforward: the verdict obtained by Carroll remains intact after surviving review in the federal appeals court and now two unsuccessful efforts to get the Supreme Court involved.
What the $5 million verdict covered
Carroll, a writer and former magazine columnist, sued Trump in federal court in New York under a state law that opened a temporary window for adults to bring otherwise time-barred sexual assault claims. She alleged Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department-store dressing room in 1996.
A federal jury in 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and for defaming her after he publicly denied her account. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in damages.
Trump has denied wrongdoing, has said he does not know Carroll and has characterized her allegations as false. The verdict was a civil finding, not a criminal conviction. Civil juries decide whether a claim has been proved under a lower legal standard than the one used in criminal cases.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit upheld the verdict. Trump then asked the Supreme Court to review the case, arguing in part that the trial court should not have allowed certain evidence, including testimony from other women who accused him of sexual misconduct and the 2005 Access Hollywood recording.
Why the evidence fight mattered
Trump’s challenge centered on what jurors were allowed to hear, rather than on a claim that the trial never occurred or that Carroll had not sued him. His legal team argued that evidence from other accusers and the recording unfairly influenced the jury.
Carroll’s side argued that the evidence was properly admitted and that the broader record independently supported the verdict. SCOTUSblog reported that Carroll’s filing opposing Supreme Court review said the strength of the remaining evidence meant the challenged material would not have changed the result.
That disagreement helps explain why the case drew attention beyond the damages total. It involved recurring legal questions about when courts may admit evidence of other alleged acts to show a pattern, intent or other relevant context.
Still, the Supreme Court’s decision not to hear the appeal leaves the appeals court’s ruling in place without creating a new nationwide precedent on those evidence questions. The justices did not issue a merits ruling that lower courts must treat as a fresh Supreme Court interpretation.
The payment was already made
According to NBC News, Trump had already turned over the $5 million, plus interest, before the court rejected his renewed request. The latest action therefore does not newly create the payment obligation; it removes another attempt to undo the judgment after payment.
That distinction is important in a legal story that can easily blur separate stages of litigation. A party can pay or secure a judgment while appeals continue, and a later appellate win can potentially alter what happens to the money. Here, the Supreme Court’s refusal leaves no remaining path at that court for the $5 million verdict.
Carroll’s case has also become a high-profile example of the long legal tail that can follow a civil verdict involving a sitting president. The litigation has moved through trial, post-trial proceedings, appellate review and petitions to the Supreme Court, each with different standards and procedural limits.
The $83 million case is separate
The Supreme Court’s action does not decide Trump’s separate appeal involving Carroll’s $83 million defamation judgment. That award arose from different statements Trump made about Carroll while he was president during his first term.
In that case, a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in 2024 after finding Trump defamed her through statements denying her allegations. The case has involved arguments over presidential immunity and whether Trump’s statements were made within the scope of his official duties.
Those issues are legally distinct from the evidence challenge in the $5 million case. A ruling or refusal by the Supreme Court in one matter does not automatically dictate the result in the other, even though the same two people are involved.
NBC News reported that the court was not expected to act on the larger judgment appeal until later in the year. The timing, the precise legal question the justices may consider and whether they will hear that case at all remain unresolved.
What this decision does and does not do
The immediate takeaway is narrow but consequential: Trump’s renewed Supreme Court effort failed, and Carroll’s $5 million verdict stands. The court did not erase, reduce or send back that award for further proceedings.
It also does not settle every dispute between Trump and Carroll, nor does it amount to a Supreme Court endorsement of every lower-court rationale. Denials of review are typically unexplained and should not be read as full merits decisions.
For Carroll, the decision brings finality to one of the two major civil judgments she won against Trump. For Trump, the remaining Supreme Court fight is concentrated on the much larger $83 million defamation case and the immunity questions attached to it.
The contrast is the central legal point: one verdict has now exhausted its Supreme Court path, while another remains live. That distinction will shape the next phase of a years-long litigation battle that has repeatedly intersected with Trump’s political life and presidency.
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