Trump, DOJ still seek to overturn separate $83M Carroll verdict
The Supreme Court on Monday denied President Donald Trump’s request that the justices reconsider their June refusal to take up his appeal of a $5 million jury finding that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her.
The court denied the petition along with several others on its order list. The Monday order closes the appellate process on the first Carroll verdict.
Trump’s lawyers had asked the justices to revisit their June decision not to hear the appeal. The Associated Press reported that it is unusual, though not unheard of, for the court to grant such requests to reconsider a denial.
Trump paid the $5 million judgment shortly after the court declined to take up his appeal in June. The Monday order ends the appellate process on the first case.
The two Carroll cases have followed separate tracks. The $5 million verdict stems from a jury finding that Trump sexually abused Carroll, a writer, at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and that he later defamed her.
The $83 million verdict separately concerned comments Trump made about Carroll in 2019, when he was president. Trump and the Justice Department are asking the justices to throw out that verdict. They argue the president is immune from being sued over comments made while in office.
The court has not yet acted on the appeal of the $83 million verdict. That case will continue to move through the courts until the justices rule.