The Supreme Court refused to reconsider Donald Trump's challenge to a $5 million verdict against him.
The justices dropped the hammer on Monday with a single sentence, offering zero explanation and listing no dissenting opinions, according to reports. This marks the second time the nation's highest court told Trump to take a hike on this particular legal battle. The court previously turned away his appeal back in June.
Here's the thing about rehearing petitions at the Supreme Court: they basically never succeed. The court's own rules demand that "intervening circumstances" of a substantial nature exist before justices will even think about giving a case another look. Trump's legal team apparently thought they had the magic ticket, but the justices clearly disagreed.
So what's this all about? A Manhattan jury concluded that Trump was liable for sexually abusing and defaming E. Jean Carroll, a former advice columnist who alleged he attacked her inside a high-end department store during the 1990s. Trump has consistently denied her account. His legal team argued during the appeal that jurors never should have heard testimony from other women who claimed he assaulted them.
With the Supreme Court slamming the door shut yet again, Carroll collected her $5 million judgment plus interest just last month. That check has been cashed, folks.
But Trump's lawyers had a crafty argument up their sleeve. They pointed to a completely separate appeal still floating around the Supreme Court, one involving Carroll's second trial victory. In that case, a jury told Trump to fork over a staggering $83.3 million for additional defamation claims. That appeal is crawling along at a slower pace and remains unresolved.
Trump is claiming presidential immunity in the bigger case. His attorneys argued that a win on that front could ripple back and impact the $5 million verdict too. They called it a "paradigmatic reason" for the court to at least hold off. The justices were unmoved.
Carroll brought Trump to court twice after publicly accusing him of sexual assault during his first term in the White House. Both juries sided with her.
Trump's team came out swinging after the ruling, calling the legal proceedings a "travesty" and the "Carroll Hoaxes." A spokesperson declared that "the American People" support the president and demanded all such cases be ended immediately, vowing to continue fighting what they labeled "Liberal Lawfare."
On the other side, Carroll's attorney Roberta Kaplan was practically doing a victory lap. She declared that the jury's unanimous finding that Trump sexually assaulted and defamed Carroll is now completely final. No court anywhere can touch it.
The $83.3 million case remains the last legal lifeline for Trump in the Carroll saga, and that one is still very much alive at the Supreme Court. Stay tuned on that front.
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