E. Jean Carroll asks Supreme Court to reject Trump's request to review her $5M defamation case
Former magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday to reject President Donald Trump's petition seeking the court's review of her successful $5 million defamation case against him.
Trump was found liable in 2023 of sexually abusing Carroll, a former Elle magazine writer, in a department store dressing room in the 1990s and then defaming her when he denied it. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million, which Trump still owes.
Trump asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing the judge in the case should not have allowed the jury to view an excerpt from the infamous "Access Hollywood" tape, in which Trump is heard describing lewd behavior that he downplayed as "locker room talk."
Trump also faulted the trial judge for allowing testimony from two women -- Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff -- who claimed that Trump had sexually assaulted them, which Trump denies.
A federal appeals court said the evidence was properly admitted and, even if it wasn't, there was no major harm to Trump. In a new filing with the Supreme Court, Carroll said that should be the end of it.
"The petition does not challenge -- indeed, does not mention -- the Second Circuit's holding that were there any error here, it did not prejudice petitioner," Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan wrote.
Trump is also appealing a separate but related defamation judgment involving Carroll that ordered him to pay $83 million.
