Supreme Court Unanimously Rejects Trump's Carroll Appeal, $5.8M Payment Now Sought

The end of the line

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined — unanimously and without noted dissents from any of its nine justices — to hear President Donald Trump's appeal of the $5 million civil verdict holding him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and defaming her when she went public with the allegations in 2019abcnews +1. Carroll's attorneys filed a motion in Manhattan federal court the following day demanding immediate disbursement of the funds, which have grown to nearly $5.8 million with accrued interestcnbc +1. Carroll, 82, celebrated on Substack: "WE WON! THIS WIN IS FOR EVERY WOMAN IN THE WORLD!"nytimes

Four years of failed appeals

The case has wound through every level of the federal judiciary since a New York jury ruled in Carroll's favor in May 2023abcnews +1. Trump persuaded courts to keep the award in escrow during his appeal, but the Second Circuit upheld the verdict in 2024 after rejecting his argument that the trial judge improperly allowed jurors to hear testimony from two women — Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff — who said Trump had sexually assaulted themtheguardian. Trump then petitioned the Supreme Court, arguing the judge should not have let the jury see a clip from the "Access Hollywood" tapeabcnews. The justices declined to act on the petition multiple times before finally rejecting it outright Monday, with no justice — including the three Trump himself nominated during his first term — registering a public dissentcnbc.

Carroll says "cooperation ends today"

Carroll's lead attorney, Roberta Kaplan, filed papers Tuesday noting that within minutes of the ruling, Trump's lawyers asked whether Carroll would consent to yet another delay so Trump could seek rehearingcnbc +1. Kaplan flatly refused. "To date, Carroll has agreed to each of Defendant's many requests to delay the payment he owes her," Kaplan wrote. "Given the extraordinary lengths he has taken to avoid such payments and that each of those efforts has been denied in full, that cooperation ends today. It is time for him to pay Carroll."cnbc +1 Judge Lewis Kaplan on Wednesday ordered Trump's legal team to respond by July 7nytimes.

A separate $83 million verdict still pending

Trump reacted to the Supreme Court's denial by posting on Truth Social that he would "continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case," and his spokesman said Carroll's suits were "Democrat-funded" fabricationscnbc. The president is also appealing a separate Manhattan jury award of $83.3 million that Carroll won from a January 2024 defamation trial — a liability listed explicitly in Trump's 2025 financial disclosure report made public Tuesday by the U.S. Office of Government Ethicscnbc +1. Carroll's lawyers noted that even a successful rehearing petition would face long odds: the Supreme Court takes certiorari in only a "handful" of cases each year, and rehearing is "an even more extraordinary remedy."cnbc