A federal appeals court has rejected President Donald Trump’s latest bid to overturn a $5 million jury verdict finding him liable for sexually abusing writer E. Jean Carroll and defaming her.
In a divided ruling issued on June 13, 2025, the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit denied Trump’s request for en banc rehearing. The decision, first reported by Politico’s Kyle Cheney, upheld a unanimous three-judge panel’s December 30, 2024, affirmation of the verdict. All 11 active judges participated in the en banc consideration, but a majority voted against rehearing the case.
Carroll, now 81, accused Trump of assaulting her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan around 1995 or 1996. She also claimed he defamed her in an October 2022 Truth Social post by dismissing her allegation as a “hoax.” In May 2023, a federal jury in Manhattan found Trump liable for sexual abuse (under New York’s civil definition) and defamation. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million but rejected her claim that the encounter amounted to rape under the specific legal standard used at trial.
Trump’s appeal centered on evidentiary rulings by U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan. He argued the judge improperly allowed jurors to see the 2005 Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump boasted about grabbing women without consent. Trump also challenged the admission of testimony from two other women who accused him of unwanted sexual contact: businesswoman Jessica Leeds, who alleged he groped her on a plane in the late 1970s, and former People magazine writer Natasha Stoynoff, who claimed he forcibly kissed her at Mar-a-Lago in 2005. Trump has denied all the allegations.
Two Trump-appointed judges, Steven Menashi and Michael Park, dissented from the denial of en banc review. They contended that the trial judge erred by admitting “propensity” evidence—the Access Hollywood tape and the other accusers’ accounts—without adequate balancing of its prejudicial impact against its probative value under Federal Rules of Evidence.
Trump has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case (docket 25-573), raising questions about the admission of temporally remote evidence and the proper application of evidence rules in sexual assault cases. As of April 2026, the high court has repeatedly delayed considering whether to grant review.
This $5 million case (often called Carroll II) is separate from another defamation verdict against Trump. In January 2024, a jury awarded Carroll $83.3 million for defamatory statements Trump made in 2019, when he denied her allegations and said she was “not my type.” That verdict has also been largely upheld on appeal, with the Second Circuit rejecting arguments that presidential immunity shields Trump from civil liability here.
Carroll’s attorney, Roberta Kaplan, has indicated that additional litigation remains possible. Trump posted a lengthy Truth Social message on Memorial Day 2024 that sharply criticized the verdicts, the judges, and Carroll herself. Kaplan previously confirmed that “all options are on the table” regarding potential new claims.
Trump, who turned 79 around the time of the en banc decision, has continued to deny ever meeting Carroll in the manner she described (beyond a brief past handshake at a public event). He has characterized both cases as politically motivated and posted bond to pursue his appeals. The matters remain civil, decided on a preponderance-of-the-evidence standard, with extensive public records from trials and appellate proceedings.
The rulings underscore the ongoing legal battles stemming from Carroll’s accusations, which have spanned multiple years and courts. Trump’s Supreme Court petition focuses heavily on evidentiary issues and could shape how similar evidence is handled in future cases.
