It's Over: On August 17 the Supreme Court Refused Trump's Last Appeal, Making the Jury's Verdict That He Sexually Abused E. Jean Carroll Final and Unchallengeable in Any Court — a Sitting President Now Legally Established, With No Further Appeal Possible, as a Sexual Abuser
On August 17, 2026, the Supreme Court rejected Donald Trump's final bid to escape the E. Jean Carroll case in which a federal jury found him liable for sexually abusing her in 1996 and defaming her about it. The Court had already denied his appeal of that verdict in late June; he petitioned for a rehearing; on August 17 the justices denied the rehearing too. The denial — procedurally routine, since the Court almost never grants rehearings — carries a consequence that is anything but routine: the unanimous jury verdict that Trump sexually abused Carroll, and the roughly $5 million (with interest, about $5.6 million) judgment against him, are now final and cannot be challenged in any court, ever. After years of appeals, a sitting President of the United States stands legally adjudicated, with no further recourse, as a sexual abuser. Importantly, this is the smaller of the two Carroll cases; the separate $83.3 million defamation judgment — over statements Trump made as president in 2019, where his lawyers and the Justice Department are pressing a sweeping presidential-immunity claim — remains pending before the Supreme Court, with a decision on whether to hear it likely in the fall. But the underlying finding at the heart of both cases — that Trump did what Carroll said he did — is now permanent.