Former President Donald Trump has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a civil verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll. The case, which has attracted nationwide attention, centers on questions of presidential accountability and evidentiary standards in politically sensitive trials. Carroll, a journalist and former television host, alleged that Trump assaulted her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s and defamed her when he denied the accusation decades later. In 2023, a Manhattan jury awarded Carroll $5 million, finding Trump legally responsible for battery and defamation. An appeals court upheld the verdict in late 2024, prompting Trump’s legal team to ask the Supreme Court to review the case.
Trump’s attorneys, led by St. Louis lawyer Justin D. Smith, have described Carroll’s claims as a “politically motivated hoax,” arguing there was no physical or DNA evidence, eyewitnesses, or police report to support her account. Civil rights attorney Areva Martin, meanwhile, praised Carroll’s persistence, writing on X that Carroll “did what millions of survivors are told is impossible—she took on one of the most powerful men in the world and won.” The Supreme Court has not yet announced whether it will hear Trump’s appeal. If the justices decline to take up the case, the lower court’s verdict and financial penalties will remain in effect.
Carroll has also reflected on the outcome of the first civil trial, saying she believes Trump might have influenced at least one juror had he testified. Speaking in a livestream discussion, she noted that several jurors were from Trump-leaning upstate New York counties. “If he had come to court … I think he could have convinced one juror,” Carroll said, adding that such a scenario might have resulted in a hung jury rather than a verdict against him
