Justices to think about whether or not to weigh in on $5 million verdict towards Trump at subsequent convention

When the justices maintain their personal convention on Friday, Feb. 20, the petitions for evaluate that they’re slated to think about will embrace one from President Donald Trump, asking the Supreme Court docket to weigh in on the 2023 verdict towards him in a civil swimsuit introduced by E. Jean Carroll. Trump calls the lawsuit “facially implausible” and “politically motivated”; Carroll urges the court docket to disclaim Trump’s petition, telling the justices that the decision would stand no matter their ruling.

Carroll, a journalist recognized for writing a preferred recommendation column for Elle for 27 years, filed her lawsuit in 2022. She alleged that Trump had sexually abused her in a dressing room at a luxurious division retailer in Manhattan in 1996 and that he had defamed her in a 2022 social media publish calling her accusations, amongst different issues, a “full con job” and a “Hoax.” Carroll relied on a New York state legislation enacted that yr, which gave grownup victims of sexual abuse one yr to sue their abusers, even when it will have in any other case been too late to take action.

In Might 2023, a jury discovered Trump chargeable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll, and awarded her $5 million. Trump appealed to the U.S. Court docket of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit, which issued an opinion in December 2024 upholding the decision. In June 2025, the complete 2nd Circuit turned down Trump’s request to rethink the case.

In his petition for review, filed by legal professionals from the James Otis Legislation Group (a agency based by D. John Sauer, Trump’s solicitor common), Trump confused that he had “clearly and constantly denied that this supposed incident ever occurred.” He contended that Carroll didn’t have any proof to corroborate her accusations, and he argued that she had “waited greater than 20 years to falsely accuse Donald Trump, who she politically opposes, till after he grew to become the forty fifth President, when she may maximize political harm to him and revenue for herself.”

Trump’s petition for evaluate argued that the decrease courts shouldn’t have allowed Carroll’s legal professionals to introduce three items of proof: testimony by two ladies, Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff, who alleged in 2016 that Trump had assaulted them – on an airplane in 1979 and at Trump’s dwelling in Florida in 2005; and the “Entry Hollywood” tape – a 2005 recording that surfaced shortly earlier than the 2016 election, through which Trump bragged about grabbing ladies by their genitals.

Opposing Supreme Court docket evaluate, Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, contended that the 2nd Circuit had held, and Trump doesn’t contest, that even when the district court docket had been flawed to confess the three items of proof, it in the end wouldn’t have made a distinction “taking the document as a complete and contemplating the energy of Ms. Carroll’s case.” Due to this fact, she argued, the Supreme Court docket ought to deny evaluate, “as a result of any ruling from this Court docket wouldn’t have an effect on the Second Circuit’s judgment.”

The Supreme Court docket may act on Trump’s petition as quickly as Monday, Feb. 23. Nevertheless, the justices have a common apply of contemplating petitions for evaluate at two or extra conferences earlier than granting them, which might imply that they may not announce a call to grant evaluate till March 2 or later.