Trump's latest bid to block $5m Carroll award in sex abuse case rejected by Supreme Court

Donald Trump's bid to overturn a jury verdict that awarded writer E. Jean Carroll $5m for alleged sexual abuse and defamation has been rejected by the Supreme Court.

The US president had asked the court to reconsider its decision in June that rejected his initial appeal.

It is unusual - although not unheard of - for the court to grant such requests.

Trump paid the $5m shortly after the court's decision.

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The case arose from a federal lawsuit Ms Carroll filed in New York City alleging that Mr Trump sexually assaulted her in the dressing room of a department store in 1996.

The defamation claims relate to statements he made about her after his first term in office, in which he described her claims as a "con job" and "hoax".

Jurors in that case decided in 2023 that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and defamed her, but did not find that he raped her, as she had claimed.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and has said he does not know Carroll. His lawyers contend that the trial was unfair.

His lawyers in the separate appeal for the $83.3m jury verdict for defamation argue that presidential immunity shields him from Ms Carroll's claims and that lower courts wrongly decided he had forfeited that defence.

Trump has been battling Ms Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, since she published a excerpt from her memoir in 2019 which alleged Trump had raped her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in Manhattan.

Ms Carroll testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter into a violent attack at the luxury retailer, across the street from Trump tower in Manhattan.

(c) Sky News 2026: Trump's latest bid to block $5m Carroll award in sex abuse case rejected by Supreme Court