Supreme Court Lets the Carroll Verdict Stand. Trump's Lies Brought Her Death Threats.

The Supreme Court refused on June 29, 2026, to hear Donald Trump’s appeal of the $5 million verdict a jury reached after finding he sexually abused and defamed the writer E. Jean Carroll. The court gave no explanation, as is typical. With that denial, Trump has run out of appeals on the verdict, and it stands, CNN reported.

What the Juries Found

Carroll sued Trump twice. She sued in 2019 for defamation after he called her account of his assault a lie, and again in 2022 for both defamation and battery, once New York passed a law letting survivors file civil claims over old assaults.

The 2022 case went to trial first. In 2023 a jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming Carroll and awarded her $5 million. The 2019 case went second, and in 2024 a separate jury awarded her $83.3 million for defamation. A federal appeals court upheld that award and described the reprehensibility of his conduct as “remarkably high, perhaps unprecedented.” Trump is expected to ask the Supreme Court to hear the larger case next.

His Lies Brought Hundreds of Death Threats

The verdicts were about words, but the damage was physical. Carroll testified that after Trump attacked her in public and branded her a liar, she received hundreds of death threats.

She installed an electronic fence around her cabin in upstate New York, warned her neighbors, and bought bullets for a gun she keeps by her bed. She lost her decades-long column at Elle and the television invitations that came with it. Two days into one trial, Trump issued a statement vowing to keep defaming her “a thousand times.”

How Stochastic Terrorism Works

Stochastic terrorism is when a prominent figure repeatedly demonizes a person in public, and a follower, acting on the signal, carries out threats or violence the figure never explicitly ordered. The attacker keeps clean hands. The target lives in fear.

Trump’s treatment of Carroll fits the pattern. He called her a liar and a fraud for years, told the public she was “not my type,” and promised to continue.

He never asked anyone to threaten her. Hundreds did it anyway. The same mechanism has put election workers and judges under guard after he named them.

Why It Matters

A jury said Trump sexually abused a woman, and two juries said he then lied about her and made her life dangerous. Rather than stop, his Justice Department opened a criminal investigation into Carroll herself. The power of the office is being turned on the person the courts already vindicated.

The courts did their part. They heard the evidence, ruled, and the Supreme Court let the ruling stand. What the courts cannot do is stop the threats that follow when the most powerful person in the country lies about a private citizen. That part is left to the rest of us, and to a Congress willing to say plainly that no one is above the law.

What You Can Do Now

Use the letter below to ask your members of Congress to state publicly that the Carroll judgments stand and that no official, including the president, is above the courts.
Call your senators and representative at (202) 224-3121. Ask them to support protections for private citizens and public servants who are targeted with death threats after a powerful official attacks them, the way the Election Worker Protection Act shields the people who run elections.
Refuse the normalization. When an official lies about a named person and threats follow, say so out loud, in public, to your representatives and your neighbors. Silence is how it becomes routine.