U.S. Supreme Court Police direct visitors from behind security barriers in front of court building, which is obscured in construction scaffolding, on the first day of the Court’s new term on Oct. 6, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
President Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court to hear his appeal of a civil verdict that ordered him to pay the writer E. Jean Carroll $5 million in damages after holding him liable for sexually abusing her during an encounter in a New York department store in the 1990s and for defaming her decades later.
Trump’s request on Monday comes nearly 11 months after the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals upheld the verdict issued by a civil jury in Manhattan federal court in May 2023.
The petition to the Supreme Court says that Judge Lewis Kaplan, who oversaw the trial, made a “series of indefensible evidentiary rulings,” among them “improperly admitting highly inflammatory propensity evidence against President Trump.”
That evidence included testimony by two other women who alleged that Trump committed sexual misconduct against them at other times.
The petition also says that Kaplan erred by allowing Carroll’s lawyer to play for jurors the notorious “Access Hollywood” tape on which Trump is heard bragging about groping women without their prior consent.
There is no automatic right to appeal to the Supreme Court. It is not known when the high court will decide whether to take Trump’s appeal.
Writer Jean Carroll and Republican presidential nominee and former U.S. President Donald Trump look on as Lawyer John Sauer (not pictured) argues for him, as he is asking a federal appeals court to overturn a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable for sexually assaulting and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll, who accused Trump of raping her nearly three decades ago, in Manhattan, New York, U.S., September 6, 2024, in this court sketch.
Jane Rosenberg | Reuters
Carroll, in a 2019 New York magazine article, first went public with her allegation that Trump raped her in a dressing room of the Bergdorf Goodman department store in the mid-1990s.
She sued him for allegedly defaming her in comments he made while flatly denying that allegation after the article appeared.
Carroll later filed a separate lawsuit accusing Trump of rape and of defaming her again in late 2022 when he commented on her allegations.
That second lawsuit was the subject of the trial that ended in May 2023. Jurors in that case did not find Trump liable for rape, but did find him liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her.
It is that verdict that Trump has asked the Supreme Court to overturn with the new petition.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks, during the swearing-in ceremony for Sergio Gor as U.S. Ambassador to India, at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., Nov. 10, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
“Carroll waited more than 20 years to falsely accuse Donald Trump, who she politically opposes, until after he became the 45th President, when she could maximize political injury to him and profit for herself,” the petition says.
“Notably, Carroll’s allegations are a story that precisely matches the plotline from an episode of one of admittedly her favorite TV shows, ‘Law & Order,’ ” the petition says.
A spokesman for Trump’s legal team, in a statement on the petition, said, “The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes.”
“President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again,” the spokesman said.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, declined to comment on the petition.
The first defamation lawsuit that Carroll filed against Trump went to trial after the second lawsuit did.
In January 2024, a Manhattan federal court jury found Trump liable for defaming Carroll in statements he made as president in 2019 when he denied her claims of rape.
That jury ordered him to pay her $83.3 in damages.
Trump appealed that verdict.
The 2nd Circuit appeals court in September rejected that appeal.
“As observed by the district court, the conduct here supports a significant punitive damages award — it involved malice and deceit, caused severe emotional injury, and continued over at least a five-year period,” a three-judge panel of the appeals court said in its decision denying Trump’s appeal.
“The record in this case supports the district court’s determination that the ‘the degree of reprehensibility’ of Mr. Trump’s conduct was remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented,’ ” the panel said.
Trump has filed a petition with the 2nd Circuit asking that the appeal be reheard by a panel comprised of all active judges on the circuit.
