President Donald Trump has asked the Supreme Court to overturn a jury verdict that found him liable for abuse against writer E. Jean Carroll in the mid-1990s, according to his legal team.
Carroll has taken Trump to trial twice and secured a total of $88.3 million in damages.
The petition marks the first time the dispute has reached the nation’s highest court.
In 2023, a Manhattan jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a department store dressing room decades earlier and for defaming her when he denied her allegations during his presidency.
That jury ordered him to pay $5 million.
The Hill reported that its review of Trump’s new 33-page petition to the Supreme Court found that it calls Carroll’s allegations “facially implausible, politically motivated,” and asks the justices to review a series of evidentiary rulings that his lawyers say “tainted the trial.”
“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 filing states.
Trump’s lawyers argue that jurors should not have been allowed to view a related video or hear testimony from other women who accused Trump of sexual assault.
“The purpose was solely, and improperly, prejudicial,” the petition says.
An appeals court rejected those arguments in June by an 8-2 vote.
While the Supreme Court rarely takes cases solely to review lower court errors, Trump’s lawyers claim the evidentiary issues raise legal questions that have divided lower courts.
“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,” a spokesman for Trump’s legal team said in a statement.
“President Trump will keep winning against Liberal Lawfare, as he continues to focus on his mission to Make America Great Again,” the statement continued.
The justices are expected to consider whether to hear the case during a closed-door conference later this term.
A judge has already ruled that the first jury’s verdict made Trump automatically liable in Carroll’s separate defamation lawsuit.
In that case, a second jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million. That verdict has not yet reached the Supreme Court.
A legal spokesperson for Trump, in an earlier statement, referred to the Carroll case as a sham.
“The American People are supporting President Trump in historic numbers, and they demand an immediate end to the political weaponization of our justice system and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded Carroll Hoaxes, the defense of which the Attorney General has determined is legally required to be taken over by the Department of Justice because Carroll based her false claims on the President’s official acts, including statements from the White House,” the statement to CNBC said.
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