President Donald Trump tried to challenge a jury’s verdict handed down to him. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected it.
In a 2023 civil court case, a jury found that Trump assaulted writer E. Jean Carroll in 1996 in the dressing room of a Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City – making her one of at least 28 women to accuse him of sexual impropriety. While he appealed to the highest court in the land, justices on Monday declined to hear his case, upholding the past verdict and keeping the $5 million in damages he was ordered to pay in place.
On Truth Social, Trump bemoaned the decision, promising that he will “continue the fight against this Weaponization and Lawfare Case against me.” He continued, “This Case is really against the United States of America, and all it stands for, and should never be allowed to happen to another President, or Candidate to be!”
Trump added, of the initial accusation: “New York State created a Law, for an instant speck of time, going back many decades, in order to wrongfully ‘nab’ me. It was tailormade [sic], and this Injustice cannot be allowed to stand!”
A spokesperson for the Trump administration additionally called the case a “witch hunt” and a “hoax” to NBC News.
Carroll successfully sued Trump in civil court over the 1996 attack – twice – despite Trump’s repeated denial of wrongdoing, insistence that Carroll wasn’t his “type” and claims that she fabricated the matter to boost book sales.
This wasn’t his only recent attempt to challenge the decision. Last last month, Trump officials were said to have launched a criminal investigation into Carroll, centering around perjury claims against Carroll. Specifically, the probe rests upon the notion that she lied in her two lawsuits against Trump – the one from 2019 centered on the attack itself, and the one in 2022, when she added defamation charges and more to the docket.
