Trump asks Supreme Court to overturn $5M Carroll ruling

by · UPI

Nov. 11 (UPI) -- President Donald Trump has asked the conservative-leaning Supreme Court to review the $5 million civil penalty he was ordered to pay writer E. Jean Carroll for sexually abusing her in the mid-1990s and then defaming her when she made the allegations public.

The petition to the Supreme Court was filed on Monday, Axios and CNN reported.

Trump has been ordered through two court cases to pay Carroll a combined $88.3 million in compensatory and punitive damages after being found liable for sexually abusing her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s and for defaming her by denying in 2019 that he had sexually abused her.

The president has repeatedly sought to have the rulings dismissed, but his requests have been repeatedly rejected.

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Late last year, an appeals court upheld the verdict and the $5 million penalty.

In the appeal to the Supreme Court, Trump's attorneys argued that there were no eyewitnesses to the assault, no video evidence, police report or official investigation.

"Instead, Carroll waited more than 20 years to falsely accuse Donald Trump, who she politically opposes, until after he became the 45th president, when she could maximize political injury to him and profit for herself," the filing said.

It was unclear if the Supreme Court would hear the case.

Carroll initially filed her defamation lawsuit against Trump in 2019, after he publicly denied her allegations of sexual assault. In January 2024, a jury awarded her $83.3 million.

The second lawsuit, filed in November 2022, accused Trump of battery and defamation over separate comments he made about the assault that year. In May 2023, a jury found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation, awarding Carroll $5 million in damages.

Trump maintains that the assault never occurred.