- Court rejects Trump's attempt to overturn jury ruling.
- The president of the United States says he “never met” columnist E Jean Carroll.
- US authorities are investigating whether Carroll lied under oath.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected Donald Trump's bid to overturn a jury finding that he sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll and must pay her $5 million.
The court's decision not to hear the US president's challenge was issued as part of a series of other rulings and contained no reasons.
On May 9, 2023, federal civil court in Manhattan found Trump liable for a “sexual assault” on a former newspaper columnist in a New York department store in 1996.
Trump responded to the Court's decision not to reconsider the jury's ruling.
“Shockingly, the Supreme Court refused to 'review' a bogus case brought against me by a woman I have never met (the line of photos of decades-old celebrities with her husband doesn't count!),” Trump wrote on social media.
“I will continue to fight this arming and legal aid case against me, including the ridiculous defamation claim, with all my power and might.”
E Jean Carroll, now 82, revealed in a book published in 2019 what she considered a rape committed 23 years earlier in a fitting room. The Republican billionaire had called her “crazy.”
“Today's decision by the Supreme Court confirms once and for all the jury's unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E Jean Carroll,” said Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan.
“His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have failed and today's ruling ends his attempt to avoid accountability for his actions.”
Trump's enemies
Trump was ordered to pay $2 million in damages for sexual assault and $3 million for defamatory comments he made in 2022. That sentence was upheld on appeal in December 2024.
In another defamation case in federal civil court in New York, a jury ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million, a decision that was upheld on appeal.
The United States Department of Justice has opened a criminal investigation against Carroll, as reported by several US media outlets in late May.
According to CNN and The New York Times, citing sources close to the case, the investigation aims to determine whether the author lied under oath during statements related to the two civil lawsuits she filed against the president.
CNN reported that prosecutors are focusing on a statement in which she claimed she had received no outside funding.
It later emerged that billionaire Reid Hoffman had covered part of his legal fees and expenses, the station said.
The investigation is just a legal maneuver undertaken by Trump's Justice Department, which is trying to use the courts to attack his personal enemies.
