WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday again rejected President Donald Trump’s push to throw out a $5 million jury finding that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in a New York City department store in the mid-1990s and then defamed her. The Republican president’s lawyers had asked the justices to reconsider their refusal to hear his appeal. The court denied Trump’s request along with several others. It is unusual, though not unheard of, for the court to grant such requests. Trump paid the judgment shortly after the court refused to take up his appeal in June. Trump and the Justice Department are also asking the high court to throw out a second Carroll verdict totaling $83 million. They argue that he is immune from being sued for comments he made about her in 2019, when he was president. The court has not yet ruled on that appeal. Carroll is a long-time advice columnist and former television talk show host. She testified in a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in the 1990s into a violent attack in the dressing room of Bergdorf Goodman, an upscale store across from Trump Tower in Manhattan. The jury found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he denied her impeachment in 2022. Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, said they were satisfied with the Supreme Court’s decision. “As a result, the jury’s unanimous verdict that Donald Trump sexually assaulted and then defamed E. Jean Carroll is now final and cannot be challenged in any court,” Kaplan said in a statement. Trump has denied wrongdoing. The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.___Follow AP’s coverage of the U.S. Supreme Court at https://apnews.com/hub/us-supreme-court.
