former President Donald Trump has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a civil verdict that found him liable for sexually abusing and defaming writer E. Jean Carroll.

The case, which has attracted nationwide attention, centers on questions of presidential accountability and evidentiary standards

in politically sensitive trials. Carroll, a journalist and former television host, alleged that Trump assaulted her in a

Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s and defamed her when he denied the accusation decades later. In 2023, a Manhattan jury awarded

Carroll $5 million, finding Trump legally responsible for battery and defamation. An appeals court upheld the verdict in late 2024,

prompting Trump’s legal team to ask the Supreme Court to review the case.

Trump’s attorneys, led by St. Louis lawyer Justin D. Smith, have described Carroll’s claims as a “politically motivated hoax,” arguing there was no physical or

DNA evidence, eyewitnesses, or police report to support her account. Civil rights attorney Areva Martin, meanwhile, praised Carroll’s persistence, writing on

X that Carroll “did what millions of survivors are told is impossible—she took on one of the most powerful men in the world and won.” The Supreme Court has not yet announced