E. Jean Carroll demands Supreme Court intervene to stop Trump

Writer E. Jean Carroll at the TIME 100 gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York, NY on April 25, 2024 (Image: Shutterstock)

Writer E. Jean Carroll is now urging the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to halt President Donald Trump's last-ditch attempt to overturn a verdict in Carroll's favor.

Newsweek reported Wednesday that Carroll's attorney, Roberta Kaplan, recently submitted a filing to SCOTUS in opposition to a motion filed by Trump's legal team in November to overturn a verdict that ordered Trump to pay Carroll $88.3 million in damages. That amount stems from a $5 million judgment handed down in 2023 for sexual abuse, and $83.3 million for defamation.

Kaplan's 44-page filing accuses Trump of trying to re-litigate issues already decided at the district court level and upheld at the appellate court level. Kaplan recounted Trump's unsuccessful attempt to exclude the infamous 2016 Access Hollywood tape, in which the eventual president was heard telling host Billy Bush about how he routinely kissed and groped women without their consent. She then reminded justices of Carroll's key allegation against Trump — that he touched her between her legs in a New York City department store in 1996 before she pushed him away.

"Ms. Carroll testified that her encounter with [Trump] began when he asked her to go shopping with him 'for a friend,' ... but then led her into a dressing room, closed the door, and 'shoved [her] against the wall ... so hard [that her] head banged,'" Kaplan wrote in the filing. "In the Access Hollywood tape, [Trump] admitted to this same tactic: He invited Nancy O’Dell to go shopping and then 'moved on her like a b——.'"

Kaplan also addressed Trump's arguments that the verdict should be overturned due to the 2024 Trump v. United States decisionthat allowed presidents to have absolute immunity for all official acts. Carroll's attorney asserted that the immunity decision does not apply to conduct Trump displayed in private.

Carroll's attorney further warned SCOTUS against taking up Trump's case, arguing that it would jeopardize decades of precedent governing defamation cases. Newsweek also reported that Kaplan cautioned the Court against further delaying accountability in a case tha has dragged on for years.

The Supreme Court has not yet granted a writ of certiorari to hear Trump's appeal. If the Court goes not hear the case, then the judgments against Trump would stand and the president would be compelled to pay the $88.3 million in judgments.

Click here to read Newsweek's full report.

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