The Supreme Court once again refuses to re-examine the Carroll v. Trump case

For the second time, the U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Donald Trump 's request to overturn the civil verdict that found him guilty of sexual assault and defamation against writer E. Jean Carroll. The decision makes the jury's verdict final.

The verdict is now set in stone. The US Supreme Court on Monday refused to rehear the civil case between Donald Trump and E. Jean Carroll, a decision published without explanation in a list of orders. This is the second time the high court has rejected such a request, following its initial refusal last June.

“The unanimous jury verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court of law,” Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said in a statement. “We are pleased that the Supreme Court has once again declined to hear this case,” she added.

Legal experts point out that Trump's approach was to ask the Court to reconsider its own June rejection, a rare maneuver unlikely to succeed. The Court seldom grants this type of request.

Carroll, an 82-year-old former magazine columnist, accuses Trump of assaulting her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the mid-1990s. The defamation stems from a 2022 Truth Social article in which Trump denied the allegations and claimed Carroll was "not his type." Last July, the president paid the writer more than five million dollars in damages.

In their initial motion, Trump's lawyers challenged, among other things, the presentation to the jury of footage from the 2005 Access Hollywood video, in which he makes crude comments about grabbing and kissing women without their consent. They also argued that the judge presiding over the civil trial had wrongfully allowed the presentation of certain evidence.

Trump has not yet reacted to this new decision. After the June rejection, he published a lengthy message on Truth Social, calling the case a case of "weaponization and lawfare" and vowing to continue fighting. "This case is actually directed against the United States of America and everything it stands for," he wrote.

In addition, Trump has filed a separate lawsuit with the Supreme Court seeking to overturn another civil defamation verdict, this one ordering him to pay $83,3 million to Carroll. His lawyers argue that he cannot be sued for statements made while he was president. The Supreme Court has not yet ruled on this case.