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By Gabe Whisnant
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A new filing in the Supreme Court fight between President Donald Trump and writer E. Jean Carroll urges the justices to reject Trump’s latest attempt to overturn the verdict in Carroll’s second defamation trial.
Why It Matters
Trump has faced two civil trials brought by Carroll: the first for sexual assault and defamation, which ended in 2023 with a jury finding him liable and awarding Carroll $5 million; and the second, in January 2024, for defamatory statements he made after that first verdict.
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The second jury awarded Carroll an additional $83.3 million for statements Trump made publicly following the 2023 decision—not in 2019—bringing his total civil liability in the Carroll matters to roughly $88 million. Courts have repeatedly rejected Trump’s various challenges to the rulings, including prior efforts to invoke presidential immunity and other arguments that lower courts have found inapplicable or unsupported.
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What To Know
In this latest appeal, Trump is not raising presidential immunity. Instead, he is arguing that both the trial court and the Second Circuit erred by allowing the jury to hear testimony from other women who said Trump sexually assaulted them. Trump contends that this testimony should have been excluded and that its admission unfairly prejudiced the jury. The Brief in Opposition filed Wednesday rejects those claims directly. Carroll’s legal team argues that the testimony was properly admitted under the Federal Rules of Evidence and that the trial court acted within its discretion in allowing the jury to hear it.
They also maintain that the Second Circuit correctly upheld that evidentiary ruling on appeal and that its analysis remains binding. Even if the Supreme Court were to disagree about whether the testimony should have been admitted, Carroll’s brief stresses that the Second Circuit has already determined the testimony did not materially affect the jury’s decision. In other words, the verdict would stand regardless, because the appellate court found no substantial influence on the outcome.
What People Are Saying
In a June 2025 interview with Newsweek, Carroll said she maintains "complete, 100 percent faith" in the courts to preserve democracy, she also urged people to take to the streets in protest of Trump: " Women have the power. We just have to realize it. We hold, as they say, the purse strings."
Trump's legal team, led by St. Louis, Missouri-based attorney Justin D. Smith, said in part in November 2025 that Carroll's claims were a “politically motivated hoax,” the Associated Press reports: “President Trump has clearly and consistently denied that this supposed incident ever occurred. No physical or DNA evidence corroborates Carroll’s story. There were no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation.”
What Happens Next
The justices are expected to review the filing as part of the docket in case 25‑573, one of several high-profile matters involving the president now before the Court. The Court’s decision on whether to hear Trump’s appeal will determine whether the long‑running Carroll litigation enters yet another phase—or whether the judgments against him remain the final word.
Clarifications, 1/15/26, 10:42 a.m.: This article was updated with clarifications about the latest court filing.
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