Top U.S. court upholds Trump sex assault judgment

Washington (AFP) — The United States Supreme Court rejected on Monday Donald Trump’s effort to overturn a jury judgment that he sexually assaulted and defamed E Jean Carroll and must pay her $5 million.

The court’s decision not to hear the US president’s challenge was issued as part of a raft of other rulings and contained no reasons.

On 9 May 2023, the federal civil court in Manhattan found Trump liable for a “sexual assault” on the former newspaper columnist in a New York department store in 1996.

Trump fired back at the Court’s decision not to reconsider the jury’s ruling.

“Surprisingly, the Supreme Court declined to ‘review’ a Fake Case brought against me by a woman I never met (Decades old celebrity photo line, standing with her husband, does not count!),” Trump wrote on social media.

“I will continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me, including the ridiculous claim of Defamation, with all of my power and strength.”

E. Jean Carroll, now 82, revealed in a book published in 2019 what she considered to be a rape committed 23 years earlier in a fitting room. The Republican billionaire had called her a “nut job.”

“Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll,” said Carroll’s attorney Roberta Kaplan.

“His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed and today’s ruling ends his quest to avoid accountability for his actions.”

Trump was ordered to pay $2 million in damages for sexual assault and $3 million for defamatory remarks he made in 2022. That judgment was upheld on appeal in December 2024.

In another defamation case before the federal civil court in New York, Trump was ordered by a jury to pay her $83.3 million, a decision that was confirmed on appeal.

A criminal investigation targeting Carroll has been opened by the US Department of Justice, several US media outlets reported at the end of May.

According to CNN and The New York Times, citing sources close to the case, the investigation aims to determine whether the author lied under oath during depositions related to the two civil suits she brought against the president.

CNN reported that prosecutors are focusing on a statement in which she claimed she had received no outside funding.

It later emerged that billionaire Reid Hoffman had covered part of her legal fees and expenses, the broadcaster said.

The probe is just one legal maneuver undertaken by Trump’s Justice Department, which is attempting to use the courts to target his personal enemies.