Former President Donald Trump is preparing to ask the Supreme Court to overturn a jury’s decision in a civil case where he was found liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, as well as for defaming her. His legal team recently filed a request to extend the deadline for challenging the $5 million verdict from September 10 to November 11. They said Trump plans to raise “significant issues” about the trial and the appeals court rulings that upheld the verdict.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, responded by saying she doesn’t believe Trump has any valid legal grounds for the Supreme Court to review the case. Carroll testified in the 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly meeting in spring 1996 at Bergdorf Goodman into an assault in a dressing room. The jury found him liable not only for sexual abuse but also for defamation when he denied her story in 2022.
An appeals panel rejected Trump’s claims last December that the trial was unfairly handled. The judge had allowed testimony from two other women who said Trump sexually abused them years earlier. Trump denied all the accusations. In June, the full 2nd Circuit Court also declined to hear the case, leaving Trump with the choice to accept the ruling or try his luck with the Supreme Court. The high court, with a conservative majority including three justices Trump appointed, might be more willing to hear his challenge.
Trump did not attend the first trial but testified briefly during a related defamation trial last year. That second trial resulted in a much larger penalty — an additional $83.3 million fine. The judge instructed the second jury to accept the finding that Trump sexually abused Carroll. Trump’s lawyers argued that the judge made serious mistakes that prevented Trump from fully contesting the abuse finding, which they say led to an unfairly large judgment.
While that appeal is still pending, Trump has seen some victories in other cases. For example, a New York appeals court recently wiped out a major civil fraud penalty against him. Still, this case against Carroll continues to be a major legal hurdle as Trump faces efforts to block the verdict through the highest court in the country. Carroll has publicly shared her story, which the Associated Press respects by naming her, unlike many sexual assault survivors. The legal battles here will likely stretch on for months as the Supreme Court considers whether to take on the case.