Supreme Court declines to review controversial E. Jean Carroll case
A multi-million-dollar 2023 verdict in a New York courtroom fined President Trump $5 million in a controversial case concerning writer E. Jean Carroll. The president had asked SCOTUS to review the case.
by Summer Lane | June 29, 2026
The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to review a high-profile case from 2023 that fined President Trump a whopping $5 million for allegedly being liable for defamation and sexual abuse against a woman named E. Jean Carroll.
The court denied the petition on Monday.
“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!),” President Trump said in a statement shortly after the case was rejected.
He continued, “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.”
The case against the president generated considerable attention during his presidential reelection campaign. According to The New York Times, Carroll, a writer, alleged that the president had sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, and then later accused him of defaming her when he denied these claims.
“This Case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to another President, or Candidate to be!” President Trump said in his Monday statement.
He added, “New York State created a Law, for an instant speck of time, going back many decades, in order to wrongfully ‘nab’ me. It was tailormade, and this Injustice cannot be allowed to stand!”
The president was likely referring to the “Adult Survivors Act” (ASA), which enabled Carroll to sue the president between November 2022 and November 2023 during its limited lookback window, which suspended the statute of limitations in sexual abuse cases for adults.
According to the NYT, the second case that arose from the initial $5 million judgment could still head to the Supreme Court. In this verdict, the president was ordered to pay Carroll more than $80 million in damages for defamation.
