E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump is the name of two related civil lawsuits filed by American author E. Jean Carroll against United States President Donald Trump. The two suits, both overseen by U.S. District Court Judge Lewis A. Kaplan, resulted in a total of $88.3 million in damages being awarded to Carroll and are undergoing appeal efforts. The cases were related to Carroll's accusation from mid-2019 (during Trump's first term) that he sexually assaulted her in late 1995 or early 1996. Trump denied the allegations, prompting Carroll to sue him for defamation in November 2019 ( Carroll I).
In November 2022, Carroll filed her second suit against Trump ( Carroll II), renewing her claim of defamation and adding a claim of battery under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law allowing sexual-assault victims to file civil suits beyond expired statutes of limitations. The suit went to trial in April 2023. Evidence included testimony from two friends Carroll spoke to after the alleged incident, a photograph of Carroll with Trump in 1987, testimony from two women who had separately accused Trump of sexual assault, footage from the Trump Access Hollywood tape and his October 2022 deposition. In reaching the verdict, the judge asked the jury to find if the preponderance of the evidence suggested that Trump raped Carroll under New York's narrow legal definition of rape at that time, denoting forcible penile penetration. The jury instead found him liable for a lesser degree of sexual abuse, as well as defamation, and ordered him to pay $5 million in damages. Trump unsuccessfully made a counterclaim and appealed to the Second Circuit. Trump then appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, which declined to hear the case in mid-2026. Including interest, Carroll collected $5.6 million.
In September 2023, Kaplan issued a partial summary judgment regarding Carroll I, finding Trump liable for defamation via his 2019 statements. The jury verdict from the January 2024 trial was $83.3 million in additional damages. Trump secured a bond for this amount plus 10% to appeal. The Department of Justice (DOJ) also filed a motion to be swapped in as defendant under the Westfall Act, which would moot the case as the federal government cannot be sued for defamation. The Second Circuit rejected both efforts by April 2026. In July, Trump and the DOJ appealed to the Supreme Court; its next session begins in October.
Background
On June 21, 2019, E. Jean Carroll published an article in New York magazine titled Hideous Men, stating that Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her in late 1995 or early 1996 in the Bergdorf Goodman department store in New York City. She is the only person whose rape allegation against Trump has been upheld as credible in court, though two other women have also accused him of rape: his first wife, Ivana Trump, who once alleged he raped her during their marriage before later recanting the claim, and a second woman—known publicly as "Jane Doe"—who accused Trump of raping her when she was 13, but withdrew her lawsuit before it could proceed.Sommerfeldt, Chris. "Talk show host E. Jean Carroll says Trump raped her in the 1990s", Los Angeles Times (June 21, 2019): "While Trump has been accused of sexual harassment and assault by several women, Carroll is first to accuse him of rape. Trump's first wife, Ivana, alleged he raped her in the late 1980s but later recanted that allegation and said she had not meant rape in the 'criminal sense.'"Gerstein, Josh. "Trump rape accuser abruptly cancels press conference", Politico (November 2, 2016): An anonymous woman identified as "Jane Doe" filed a lawsuit alleging Trump raped her at age 13 in 1994, but dropped the case days before the 2016 election, citing threats and fear for her safety.
Contrary to Trump's later assertion that she was a "then almost sixty-year-old woman", she is less than three years Trump's senior, being 52 at the time, and he 49. Further details of the reputed incident were published in Carroll's 2019 book What Do We Need Men For?: A Modest Proposal. Carroll said that on her way out of the store she ran into Trump and he asked for help buying a gift for a woman. After she suggested a handbag or a hat, the two reputedly moved on to the lingerie section and joked about the other trying some on. Carroll said they ended up in a dressing room together, the door of which was shut, and Trump forcefully kissed her, pulled down her tights and raped her before she was able to escape. She stated that the alleged incident lasted less than three minutes, during which time there was no sales attendant present in the department. Lisa Birnbach and Carol Martin told New York magazine that Carroll had confided with them shortly after the alleged assault.
The allegations were made during the first Trump administration. In an official government statement made on June 21, 2019, Trump denied that he had ever met Carroll, accused her of trying to sell books, implied she had a political agenda, compared the accusation to one against U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, and said Bergdorf Goodman had confirmed they had no surveillance footage of the alleged incident. Trump further called on the public to provide information indicating that Carroll was conspiring with the Democratic Party or New York magazine. Trump separately stated in an interview with The Hill that Carroll was "totally lying" and that "she's not my type." Carroll provided New York with a photograph of her and her then-husband John Johnson socializing with Trump and his then-wife Ivana Trump in 1987. Trump dismissed its significance, saying, "Standing with my coat on in a line—give me a break—with my back to the camera. I have no idea who she is."
Carroll initially chose not to describe the alleged sexual assault as rape, instead describing it as a fight. "My word is fight. My word is not the victim word... I fought."
A couple of weeks after the New York magazine article was published, Carroll ran into lawyer George Conway (a Trump critic and husband of Kellyanne Conway), who told her to file a defamation lawsuit and helped her find a lawyer. Conway then wrote an for The Washington Post encouraging readers to believe Carroll.
Initial litigation and related matters Original defamation lawsuit (Carroll I; November 2019–April 2023)
In November 2019, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit with the New York Supreme Court. The suit states that Trump had damaged her reputation, substantially harmed her professionally, and caused emotional pain.
After the lawsuit was filed, White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham described the lawsuit as "frivolous" and Carroll's story as fraudulent.
In January 2020, Carroll's attorneys served a request for a DNA sample from Trump for "analysis and comparison against unidentified male DNA present" on a black dress she was wearing when the alleged assault occurred. In December 2020, Carroll said she was willing to delay collecting the sample and testimony from Trump in exchange for earlier access to other relevant records. The DNA sample request included a DNA report on Carroll and five others who may have come into contact with the dress during a photo shoot.
In September 2020, government lawyers from the Department of Justice (DOJ) asserted that Trump had acted in his official capacity while responding to Carroll's accusation; they said that the Federal Tort Claims Act grants their department the right to take the case from Trump's private lawyers and move it to federal court. A White House official also argued that the act provides precedent for the government to exercise this right. Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan stated that "Trump's effort to wield the power of the U.S. government to evade responsibility for his private misconduct is without precedent." In October 2020, U.S. District Court Judge Lewis Kaplan (of no relation to Roberta Kaplan) rejected the DOJ's motion, ruling that the president is not a government employee and that Trump's comments were not related to his job as such. The following month, the DOJ filed an appeal with the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
In June 2021 (during the Biden administration) the DOJ argued to the Second Circuit that DOJ lawyers should defend Trump as a federal employee, stating, "Speaking to the public and the press on matters of public concern is undoubtedly part of an elected official's job." On September 27, 2022, the appeals court passed the question of whether Trump was shielded by his former office as U.S. president on to the District of Columbia (D.C.) appeals court. Trump's attorney Alina Habba praised the ruling as a reversal of the District Court's stance (that the comments were not executive business).
In January 2023, the D.C. appeals court held oral arguments before a full panel of judges. Trump's lawyers argued that his comments fell within the scope of his employment, while some judges pointed out that D.C. law holds employers responsible when their employees cause individuals harm in the scope of their employment but not otherwise. Judge Catharine Easterly noted that employer liability cases usually have a trial record and jury verdict to refer to, while Judge John Howard questioned whether further fact-finding was warranted.
In March 2023, Judge Kaplan ruled that the infamous Donald Trump Access Hollywood tape and the testimonies of Jessica Leeds and Natasha Stoynoff (who both allege that Trump began groping them without permission) would be admissible at the trial for the original lawsuit. He then postponed the trial for the defamation claim while the appeals court continued to deliberate.
On April 21, 2023, the Second Circuit said it should not be responsible for deciding the question of whether Trump had acted within the scope of his role as president when he made public comments about Carroll, and it remanded the issue to the U.S. District Court for Judge Kaplan to decide. In July, the DOJ recanted its position that Trump was acting in his official capacity.
Statement by Trump (October 2022) On October 12, 2022, Trump published a post on Truth Social against E. Jean Carroll, to which he attached a June 2019 photograph of her. Carroll would later successfully claim this post as defamatory in her second lawsuit against him.
Deposition of Trump (October 2022)
Trump was deposed by Carroll's lawyer Roberta Kaplan on October 19. Trump said that he usually had security guards with him but was unable to name any working for him at that time. He denied reaching out to Bergdorf Goodman ahead of his statements in 2019, arguing that "if it did happen, it would have been reported within minutes". He accused Carroll and her lawyer of being "aligned with Hillary Clinton", an assertion he based on "somebody [having] mentioned it", but admitted that he had no knowledge of Carroll's political party or documentation of her pursuing a political agenda; he went on to repeatedly accuse Roberta Kaplan of being a political operative of Clinton or the Democratic Party. When asked if anyone had given him information on Carroll conspiring with that party or New York magazine, Trump said, "I'll let you know." He threatened to sue Carroll and Kaplan after the proceedings were complete. He also accused Carroll of attempting to sabotage his 2024 presidential campaign by keeping him "busy with litigation". Trump called the litigation a hoax comparable to supposed ruses against him related to both Russia and Ukraine.