U.S. Supreme Court docket Police direct guests from behind safety boundaries in entrance of court docket constructing, which is obscured in development scaffolding, on the primary day of the Court docket’s new time period on Oct. 6, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Photos
President Donald Trump requested the Supreme Court docket to listen to his attraction of a civil verdict that ordered him to pay the author E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages after holding him responsible for sexually abusing her throughout an encounter in a New York division retailer within the Nineties and for defaming her a long time later.
Trump’s request on Monday comes practically 11 months after the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court docket of Appeals upheld the decision issued by a civil jury in Manhattan federal court docket in Could 2023.
The petition to the Supreme Court docket says that Decide Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, made a “collection of indefensible evidentiary rulings,” amongst them “improperly admitting extremely inflammatory propensity proof in opposition to President Trump.”
That proof included testimony by two different ladies who alleged that Trump dedicated sexual misconduct in opposition to them at different occasions.
The petition additionally says that Kaplan erred by permitting Carroll’s lawyer to play for jurors the infamous “Entry Hollywood” tape on which Trump is heard bragging about groping ladies with out their prior consent.
There isn’t a automated proper to attraction to the Supreme Court docket. It’s not recognized when the excessive court docket will determine whether or not to take Trump’s attraction.
Author Jean Carroll and Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump look on as Lawyer John Sauer (not pictured) argues for him, as he’s asking a federal appeals court docket to overturn a $5 million jury verdict discovering him responsible for sexually assaulting and defaming author E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her practically three a long time in the past, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 6, 2024, on this court docket sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Carroll, in a 2019 New York journal article, first went public along with her allegation that Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman division retailer within the mid-Nineties.
She sued him for allegedly defaming her in feedback he made whereas flatly denying that allegation after the article appeared.
Carroll later filed a separate lawsuit accusing Trump of rape and of defaming her once more in late 2022 when he commented on her allegations.
That second lawsuit was the topic of the trial that resulted in Could 2023. Jurors in that case didn’t discover Trump responsible for rape, however did discover him responsible for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her.
It’s that verdict that Trump has requested the Supreme Court docket to overturn with the brand new petition.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, throughout the swearing-in ceremony for Sergio Gor as U.S. Ambassador to India, on the White Home in Washington, D.C., U.S., Nov. 10, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
“Carroll waited greater than 20 years to falsely accuse Donald Trump, who she politically opposes, till after he grew to become the forty fifth President, when she may maximize political damage to him and revenue for herself,” the petition says.
“Notably, Carroll’s allegations are a narrative that exactly matches the plotline from an episode of certainly one of admittedly her favourite TV reveals, ‘Legislation & Order,’ ” the petition says.
A spokesman for Trump’s authorized crew, in an announcement on the petition, stated, “The American Folks stand with President Trump as they demand a right away finish to the entire Witch Hunts, together with the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.”
“President Trump will hold successful in opposition to Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to deal with his mission to Make America Nice Once more,” the spokesman stated.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, declined to touch upon the petition.
The primary defamation lawsuit that Carroll filed in opposition to Trump went to trial after the second lawsuit did.
In January 2024, a Manhattan federal court docket jury discovered Trump responsible for defaming Carroll in statements he made as president in 2019 when he denied her claims of rape.
That jury ordered him to pay her $83.3 in damages.
Trump appealed that verdict.
The 2nd Circuit appeals court docket in September rejected that attraction.
“As noticed by the district court docket, the conduct right here helps a major punitive damages award — it concerned malice and deceit, triggered extreme emotional damage, and continued over at the least a five-year interval,” a three-judge panel of the appeals court docket stated in its determination denying Trump’s attraction.
“The report on this case helps the district court docket’s dedication that the ‘the diploma of reprehensibility’ of Mr. Trump’s conduct was remarkably excessive, maybe unprecedented,’ ” the panel stated.
Trump has filed a petition with the 2nd Circuit asking that the attraction be reheard by a panel comprised of all energetic judges on the circuit.
