Trump Petitions Supreme Court to Vacate $83.3 Million Carroll Defamation Award

The petition places a jury-determined damages award under Supreme Court review, a procedural step that could define the legal boundaries between presidential speech and defamation liability.

President Donald Trump has filed a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the $83.3 million damages award a federal jury ordered him to pay to writer E. Jean Carroll in January 2024, according to reporting by The New York Times dated July 28, 2026. The petition represents a formal request for certiorari, the next available appellate avenue after lower federal courts declined to set aside the verdict.

The 2024 award stems from a defamation case in which the jury found Trump liable for statements he made about Carroll in 2019, after she publicly accused him of sexual assault. That verdict was separate from an earlier 2023 case in which a different jury found Trump liable for battery and defamation, resulting in a $5 million award. Court records confirm Trump paid the $5 million judgment from the 2023 case; the status of payment or bonding arrangements for the $83.3 million 2024 award has not been publicly disclosed in available court filings as of this report's publication date.

Trump's legal team has argued, in filings before lower courts, that the damages were excessive and that certain evidentiary rulings prejudiced the trial. U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over the case in the Southern District of New York, and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals both declined to disturb the verdict. The Supreme Court petition is the final domestic judicial recourse available to Trump under standard appellate procedure.

Carroll's legal team has previously maintained that the damages reflect the scope and duration of the defamatory statements and their impact on Carroll's reputation and professional standing. The Supreme Court has discretion over whether to accept the case; it agrees to hear roughly 1 to 2 percent of petitions filed each term, according to Supreme Court records.

Several material facts remain unknown from available public records. The precise legal arguments contained in the Supreme Court petition have not been reproduced in full in publicly accessible court dockets as of July 28, 2026. It is also unknown whether the Court has requested a response from Carroll's counsel or placed the petition on a conference schedule. The Supreme Court's docket — available at supremecourt.gov — would be the authoritative source to confirm petition number, response deadlines, and any conference dates.