Trump to Ask Supreme Court to Toss E. Jean Carroll $5 Million Verdict
President’s lawyers seek extension to file a petition after appeals court upheld jury finding of sexual abuse and defamation
President Donald Trump will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a $5 million civil jury verdict that found he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her, his lawyers said in a recent court filing.
In the filing, Trump’s lawyers asked the high court to extend the deadline for challenging the verdict from Sept. 10 to Nov. 11, saying the president "intends to seek review" of “significant issues” arising from the trial and the decisions by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that upheld the verdict.
Carroll testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in the spring of 1996 into a violent attack in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman. A Manhattan jury later found that Trump had sexually abused Carroll and defamed her when he publicly denied the assault and made statements about her allegations; the jury awarded her a total of $5 million in damages.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals subsequently reviewed the case and issued decisions that left the jury’s findings intact. Trump’s lawyers cited those appellate rulings in asking the Supreme Court for more time to prepare a petition for review. The filing did not specify which legal issues the president would seek to bring before the justices.
Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, responded to the filing, saying, "We do not believe that President Trump will be able to present any legal issues in the Carroll cases that merit review by the United States Supreme Court." Kaplan has represented Carroll throughout the litigation and in appeals.
The case arises from civil litigation, and the requested Supreme Court review would follow the normal petition process in which a party asks the justices to consider whether to hear an appeal from an appeals court decision. If the court grants an extension, Trump’s legal team would have until the extended date to file a petition for a writ of certiorari arguing that the high court should review the 2nd Circuit’s rulings.
The dispute over the verdict is one of several high-profile legal matters involving the president. The Carroll case has drawn public attention because it involved testimony about an alleged assault from decades earlier and because it generated a damages award against a sitting president whose public statements about the matter were central to the defamation finding.
If the Supreme Court declines to review the case, the 2nd Circuit’s rulings and the underlying verdict would remain in place, leaving the $5 million judgment unresolved until the parties address collection or other post-judgment matters in the lower courts. If the court agrees to hear the case, it could take months for briefing and argument before a decision from the justices.
The filing seeking an extension was reported Sept. 3, 2025, and reflects the next procedural step in the challenge to the jury’s finding. Both sides will continue to litigate the post-verdict process in federal courts as the matter proceeds.