The Supreme Court on Monday said no to President Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss a jury’s decision that he sexually abused the writer E.Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and then lied about it.The high court didn’t explain its decision, which is usual.Trump’s lawyers said the case against him was based on “highly emotional” evidence, including the testimony of two other women who said he sexually abused them many years ago.Trump has denied all these claims.
His lawyers said the judge didn’t follow proper rules when handling evidence.
They argued this case should not be about Trump’s job as president, even though the verdict came before he was back in the White House.
In court documents, Attorney Justin D.
Smith wrote, “This unfair treatment of a President cannot be allowed to happen.” Trump later named Smith to be an appeals court judge.
This decision comes as the Supreme Court releases opinions on some of the biggest cases of the year, which are important to Trump’s plans.
Trump has been known to express his anger about losing at the Supreme Court in a very personal way, including by criticizing the court in strong and unusual ways when it overturned some of his policies.
Carroll’s lawyers asked the court to look at the case.
They said the women’s stories were similar and that Judge Lewis Kaplan’s decisions matched what other judges around the country have done.Attorney Roberta Kaplan, who is not related to the judge, wrote, “This issue isn’t worth reviewing.”
Carroll, a long-time advice columnist and former TV host, told a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly meeting in spring 1996 into a violent attack in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury store next to Trump Tower.
The jury also found Trump responsible for lying about her claim in 2022.
The Associated Press doesn’t name people who say they’ve been sexually abused unless they come forward publicly, like Carroll has.
A jury also gave Carroll an extra $83.3 million after a second defamation trial.
Trump is appealing that result, but it hasn’t reached the Supreme Court yet.
Trump has managed to avoid other big legal judgments, like a $500 million fraud penalty that was thrown out by a New York appeals court.
The Supreme Court also gave him broad protection from criminal charges in 2024, though it later narrowly refused his request to stop a sentencing in his New York hush-money case.
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