Supreme Court may decide Trump's $88 million E. Jean Carroll awards
Two Carroll verdicts totaling about $88.3 million are on a path to the Supreme Court, while Trump fights to delay payment and the Justice Department seeks a role of its own.
Two monetary judgments against Donald Trump are now moving through the courts with the Supreme Court likely to have the final say on both. One case ended with a $5 million verdict; the other produced an $83.3 million award, and together they have become a major test of whether a former president can be held financially liable for repeated attacks on a private accuser.
The cases are separate, even though they grow out of the same long-running dispute with E. Jean Carroll. In the first lawsuit, a Manhattan jury in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation and awarded Carroll $5 million. In the second, a different jury in January 2024 ordered Trump to pay $83.3 million for defamation tied to later public comments and social media attacks. Both disputes stem from Carroll’s claim that Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store dressing room in the 1990s, an allegation Trump has denied for years.
Trump has already lost the appeal in the larger case. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the $83.3 million judgment in 2025, and in April 2026 it declined to rehear the case en banc. The appeals court also temporarily paused enforcement of the payment in May 2026 while Trump pursues Supreme Court review, but only if he posts a $7.4 million bond to cover interest through October. That pause does not erase the award; it only delays collection while the legal fight continues.
The Supreme Court docket shows Trump filed a petition for review in the $83.3 million case in November 2025 after receiving an extension, and the justices have repeatedly rescheduled consideration of that petition. The Justice Department said in May 2026 that it will ask the Supreme Court to let it intervene under the Westfall Act, a move that could substitute the United States for Trump and, if accepted, potentially undercut Carroll’s claim in that case.
The smaller $5 million verdict has also remained intact after the Second Circuit left it standing. That means Trump is facing two separate judgments, two separate appeals paths, and two separate questions for the high court: whether the awards should survive, when they can be enforced, and how far presidential immunity or federal substitution can reach in civil cases involving a former president.
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