President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to overturn a jury's civil lawsuit verdict that he sexually abused and later defamed former Elle columnist E. Jean Carroll.
Trump's lawyers argued in a filing that allegations leading to the $5 million verdict were "propped up" by a "series of indefensible evidentiary rulings" that allowed Carroll's lawyers to present "highly inflammatory propensity evidence" against him.
"President Trump has clearly and consistently denied that this supposed incident ever occurred," Justin Smith, one of Trump's lawyers, and his co-counsel wrote in the filing, according to The Associated Press. "No physical or DNA evidence corroborates Carroll's story. There were no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation."
Carroll sued Trump twice after she released a book in 2019 that claimed Trump raped her during a brief encounter in a department store dressing room in New York City in the 1990s. Trump vigorously denied the claims, saying he had never met Carroll, that she was not his "type" and that she fabricated the incident to sell books. His vocal and repeated criticisms and denials led to Carroll's defamation allegations.
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Trump's lawyers accused the trial judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, of warping federal evidence rules to bolster Carroll's "implausible, unsubstantiated assertions." They also said that by upholding the verdict, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was in conflict with other federal appeals courts on how such rules should be applied.
In September, when Trump's lawyers first indicated they would appeal to the Supreme Court, Carroll's lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, said, "We do not believe that President Trump will be able to present any legal issues in the Carroll cases that merit review by the United States Supreme Court," the AP reported.
A spokesperson for Trump's legal team told the AP the Supreme Court appeal was part of the president's crusade against "Liberal Lawfare."
"The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes," the statement said.
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A three-judge appellate panel upheld the verdict in December 2024, rejecting Trump's claims that Kaplan's decisions spoiled the trial. Then in June, 2nd Circuit judges denied Trump's petition for the full appellate court to take up the case. That left Trump with two options: accept the result and allow Carroll to collect the judgment, which he'd previously paid into escrow, or fight on in Supreme Court.
Trump skipped the 2023 trial but testified briefly at a follow-up defamation trial last year that ended with a jury ordering him to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million.
The 2nd Circuit upheld that verdict on Sept. 8, with a three-judge panel calling the jury's damages awards "fair and reasonable." Trump has since asked the full appellate court to hear arguments and reconsider the ruling.
Fox News Digital's Anders Hagstrom, Ashley Oliver and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
