Topline
President Donald Trump intends to ask the Supreme Court to review the court ruling finding him liable for defaming and sexually assaulting writer E. Jean Carroll, potentially setting up a blockbuster court ruling from the 6-3 conservative court over whether the president committed sexual abuse—and putting Carroll’s other $83 million court win against Trump at risk.
Trump asked the Supreme Court for more time to submit a petition asking it to hear the Carroll case, making the request in a court filing that was submitted last week but first reported Wednesday by Bloomberg.
A jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual abuse in 2023 and ordered him to pay Carroll $5 million—but did not find him liable on allegations of rape—and an appeals court then upheld that ruling in December.
Carroll has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the 1990s, and then went on to accuse the president of defamation after he attacked her for going public with her allegations, with Trump vehemently denying her claims and saying the writer was not “my type.”
Carroll brought two defamation cases against Trump, and the $5 million ruling came first but was also used in the second trial, which took Trump defaming Carroll as a given—because the jury had already determined it in the first case—and only asked the jury to decide how much Trump had to pay in damages.
The jury in that case ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million for defaming Carroll, and even though it’s not the case Trump is now appealing to the Supreme Court, a favorable ruling from justices in the $5 million case could give the president grounds to have the more costly ruling overturned.
Trump has asked the Supreme Court to let him submit a petition in the Carroll case by Nov. 10, so the case should get formally appealed to the high court by that date. If the Supreme Court doesn’t agree to Trump’s request for an extension, he would have to file a petition to the court by Sept. 11. Once Trump submits his petition asking the court to take up the Carroll case, it’s unclear how long it will take the court to decide whether it will hear the case, and how it will rule. Should the court decide to hear the case for oral arguments, it’s likely the case would be decided by the end of the court’s term in June 2026.
Approximately $95 million. That’s how much Trump now owes Carroll between the two cases she’s brought against him. The judgments keep accruing interest while they’re under appeal, so the $83.3 million Trump was initially ordered to pay is now up to more than $89 million. Trump has put money for both the judgements into court-controlled accounts, and the money will not be released—either to Carroll, or back to him if the judgement is overturned—until the appeals process in each case is completely over.
Carroll’s second case against Trump, with the higher $83 million price tag, is also still moving forward in appeals court. A federal appeals court is now deliberating whether to uphold the ruling after hearing oral arguments in June, and it’s unclear when they’ll rule. After the court decides, the losing party—either Trump or Carroll—can ask the full appeals court to reconsider the case, and then go to the Supreme Court after that. If the Supreme Court were to throw out the $5 million ruling against Trump, however, that could set this case back, as a lower court could then have to re-decide the case and consider again whether Trump actually committed defamation.
Carroll first publicly accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in 2019, alleging in a New York Magazine article that the president had raped her decades earlier. She is one of more than two dozen women to have accused the president of sexual abuse or misconduct, but is the only one whose claims have gone to trial. Trump has repeatedly denied the accusations and attacked Carroll in interviews and on social media—prompting her to sue him for defamation in November 2019.” Carroll then filed a second lawsuit, which alleged both defamation and sexual assault, under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which gave a temporary window for adult victims of abuse to bring lawsuits even after the statute of limitations had expired. Though brought second, that case ended up going to trial first, after the initial defamation case got tied up in court. A jury ruled Trump was liable for defamation and abuse in May 2023 following a two week trial after deliberating for less than three hours, ordering Trump to pay Carroll $2 million in damages for abuse and $3 million for defamation.