Supreme Court rebukes Trump AGAIN as he attempts to claw back $5.6 million in E Jean Carroll sex abuse case

By BREANNE DEPPISCH, US SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER Published: 15:32, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 15:39, 17 August 2026 The Supreme Court on Monday declined for a second time to review President Donald Trump's request to avoid paying out $5.6 million to the writer E. Jean Carroll.   The case appeared on a list of denials released by the court on Monday. The orders list does not specify the positions of individual justices.  Trump had already asked the court to reconsider its June decision not to let him claw back the $5.6 million judgement for sexual abuse and defamation he was ordered to pay to the writer E. Jean Carroll.  In an unusual move, however, the Supreme Court responded by agreeing to distribute Trump's rehearing request to all nine justices - a procedural step could have cleared the way for the high court to revive action on the case as  early as August  Trump has already turned over $5 million in damages, plus interest.  At issue is a lawsuit Carroll filed against then-former President Donald Trump in 2022, accusing him of sexually assaulting her at a New York City department store in the mid-1990s - and then subsequently defaming her after she went public with her accusations. Lawyers for Carroll have argued for years Trump already tried and failed to make his case before a bevy of courts, including the Supreme Court, which already declined to hear Trump's appeal of the lower court judgement. Writer E. Jean Carroll leaves the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals following the court's hearing of Trump's appeal in 2024  Trump looks on as lawyer D John Sauer argues for a jury to overturn a $5 million jury verdict in Manhattan President Donald Trump disembarks Air Force One, Sunday, Aug. 16, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Lawyers for Trump then took the rare step of filing the petition for rehearing, or asking the justices to take a second look at their earlier decision. A minimum of four justices must agree to take up a case for review. They told the Supreme Court at the time that the petition for rehearing will 'present important questions concerning Presidential immunity for statements President Trump made in 2019, while serving as President.'  That appeared to suggest that, if the opportunity presented itself, they would plan to make a fairly technical argument connecting the Supreme Court's presidential immunity decision in the 2024 case, Trump v. United States, to the Carroll case. The high court held in 2024 that a sitting president has absolute immunity from criminal prosecution for ‘core constitutional powers’ carried out while in office, and has at least ‘presumptive immunity’ for other official acts. Though the case in question involved criminal charges, Trump's lawyers have argued that some of its reasoning should also apply in civil cases as well. Separately, Trump has appealed another defamation case against E. Jean Carroll, concerning an $83 million judgement. The high court is slated to hear that appeal later this year.