Donald Trump just suffered another courtroom defeat as the Supreme Court he helped shape wasn’t willing to bail him out.
On Monday, the nation’s highest court refused to hear Trump’s appeal of the $5 million jury verdict won by writer E. Jean Carroll, effectively leaving intact the judgment that found him liable for sexually abusing Carroll and then defaming her when he publicly branded her allegations a “hoax.”
The Court offered no explanation for declining the case, which is standard practice.
Trump, however, had plenty to say.
Just hours after the decision, he took to Truth Social to complain that the Supreme Court had refused to review what he called a “Fake Case,” once again insisting he had never met Carroll—even though the two were photographed together years ago.
“I will continue the fight,” Trump wrote, calling the case “Weaponization” and “Lawfare” while promising to keep battling the verdict “with all of my power and strength.”
It’s a familiar script.
Whenever Trump loses in court, he rarely acknowledges the ruling itself. Instead, he declares the entire legal system corrupt, labels the case a witch hunt, and promises the next appeal will finally vindicate him.
This time, though, there isn’t another appeal.
The Supreme Court’s decision leaves standing a unanimous jury verdict finding Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and then defaming her decades later by publicly accusing her of fabricating the story.
Trump has spent years trying to undo that verdict.
His lawyers argued the trial was unfair and that evidence—including testimony from other women who accused Trump of sexual misconduct—should never have been presented.
An appeals court rejected those arguments.
Now the Supreme Court has declined to intervene as well.
For Carroll, it’s the latest legal victory in a years-long battle that began after she publicly accused Trump of assaulting her in a Manhattan department store dressing room.
Trump has consistently denied the allegation.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, celebrated Monday’s decision, saying it finally ends Trump’s long-running effort to escape responsibility.
“Today’s Supreme Court decision affirms once and for all the jury’s unanimous verdict that President Donald J. Trump sexually assaulted and defamed E. Jean Carroll,” Kaplan said in a statement. “His multiple efforts to appeal that verdict have all failed.”
The ruling doesn’t end Trump’s legal fight with Carroll entirely.
He’s still appealing a separate verdict ordering him to pay **$83.3 million** for repeatedly defaming Carroll after the first lawsuit.
That case remains pending.
Perhaps the most striking part of Monday’s decision is who made it.
This is the same Supreme Court where conservatives hold a commanding majority—including three justices appointed by Trump himself.
The Court has repeatedly ruled in Trump’s favor on issues involving presidential power and executive authority.
But when it came to the Carroll verdict, the justices declined to step in.
For Trump, that’s another high-profile legal setback in a case he’s spent years insisting should simply disappear.
Instead, the verdict, and the accountability that came with it, remains firmly in place.
