08/19/2026
The Supreme Court has closed the last door. On Monday, the justices refused to reconsider their own June decision, ending Donald Trump's effort to wipe out the $5 million civil verdict that E. Jean Carroll won against him.
The court gave no explanation. Rehearing petitions like the one Trump filed are rare and almost never granted, and asking the justices to take a second look at a case they have already turned away is close to a legal last resort.
The verdict goes back to May 2023, when a federal jury in Manhattan found Trump liable in a civil case for s*xually abusing Carroll at a New York department store in the mid-1990s and for defaming her when he denied her account. This was a civil trial, not a criminal one. The jury decided liability and damages, not guilt.
Trump has denied the allegations from the start and has called the case politically motivated. He lost at trial, lost at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, was denied a rehearing there, and was turned away by the Supreme Court in June. Monday's order was his last swing.
The money is already paid. Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan says her client received more than $5.6 million last month, the damages award plus post-judgment interest, and that Trump now has no remaining options to challenge it.
One fight is still live. A separate federal jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million in a second defamation case, and Trump has asked the Supreme Court to overturn that verdict too. The justices have not said whether they will hear it.
https://palmedianews.com/scotus-rejects-trump-carroll-rehearing/
