When SCOTUS holds a meeting on February 20, there is a petition from Trump to consider for their review from the E. Jean Carroll 2023 civil case in which a jury found Trump liable of sexual abuse and defamation, awarding her $5 million.
Trump appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which issued an opinion in December 2024 upholding the verdict. In June 2025, the full 2nd Circuit turned down Trump’s request to reconsider the case.
Trump is calling the lawsuit “facially implausible” and “politically motivated.”
- Trump’s petition for review argued that the lower courts should not have allowed Carroll’s lawyers to introduce three pieces of evidence: testimony by two women, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who alleged in 2016 that Trump had assaulted them – on an airplane in 1979 and at Trump’s home in Florida in 2005; and the “Access Hollywood” tape – a 2005 recording that surfaced shortly before the 2016 election, in which Trump bragged about grabbing women by their genitals.
- Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, contended that the 2nd Circuit had held, and Trump does not contest, that even if the district court had been wrong to admit the three pieces of evidence, it ultimately wouldn’t have made a difference “taking the record as a whole and considering the strength of Ms. Carroll’s case.” Therefore, she argued, the Supreme Court should deny review, “because any ruling from this Court would not affect the Second Circuit’s judgment.”
The Extreme Court could act on Trump’s petition as soon as Monday February 23, but often consider petitions for review over two or more meetings before granting them. The Court typically turns away the majority of petitions, only accepting for review 1-2% of them.
Trump’s attorneys insist it is “deeply damaging to the fabric of our Republic” for the president to have to continue fighting “against decades-old, false allegations and the myriad wrongs throughout this baseless case.”
“This mistreatment of a President cannot be allowed to stand,” Trump wrote in their final brief, submitted Wednesday.
Trump has also appealed Carroll’s second defamation verdict that awarded her $83.3 million.