A Democracy Drive Thread
A jury found Donald Trump liable for sexually abusing E. Jean Carroll and defaming her; a second jury added $83.3 million for his continued lies. Everything since has been the Roy Cohn playbook — deny, attack, delay — a rich and powerful man bending the courts and the powers of his office to make sure a woman he was found to have abused never gets justice.
E. Jean Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, said in 2019 that Donald Trump sexually assaulted her in a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s. One jury found him liable for that sexual abuse and for defaming her; a second ordered him to pay $83.3 million more for his continued attacks — a combined $88.3 million. What this thread documents, in order and with sources, is what Trump has done since: weaponize his own Justice Department to try to make the case vanish, freeze the payments, and haul the matter to the Supreme Court not once but twice — anything to avoid being held to the same law that would have buried an ordinary person years ago.
It is the Roy Cohn playbook — never settle, never apologize, attack the accuser, drag it out forever. And it is being run by the same man captured on the “Access Hollywood” tape boasting that he grabs women and that “when you’re a star, they let you do it”; who was later convicted of 34 felonies for hiding hush-money payments to a porn star; and who bragged to Howard Stern about walking through the dressing rooms of pageant contestants while they were undressed. He cannot abide the idea of a woman getting the better of him, and he is spending the machinery of his office and a bottomless appeals budget to make sure she never collects a dime. Read top to bottom, the double standard speaks for itself — accountability, in his world, is for other people.
June 21, 2019
In an excerpt from her book “What Do We Need Men For?” published by New York magazine on June 21, 2019, longtime Elle advice columnist E. Jean Carroll wrote that Trump sexually assaulted her in a dressing room at the Bergdorf Goodman department store in Manhattan in late 1995 or early 1996. Trump denied ever knowing her — “I’ve never met this person in my life” — claimed she was “trying to sell a new book”, and days later told The Hill “she’s not my type”. Those denials became the basis for the defamation litigation that followed.
November 4, 2019
On November 4, 2019, Carroll sued Trump for defamation, arguing that his public statements calling her a liar — that he had never met her and that she fabricated the assault to sell books — were false and damaged her reputation and career. Known as “Carroll I”, this case would eventually produce the $83.3 million judgment.
November 24, 2022
On November 24, 2022 — the first day New York’s Adult Survivors Act opened a temporary window for time-barred sexual-assault claims — Carroll filed a second lawsuit (“Carroll II”) adding a battery claim over the alleged 1990s assault itself, alongside a fresh defamation claim over an October 2022 Truth Social post in which Trump again called her account a “Hoax” and a “con job”.
May 9, 2023
After a two-week trial and less than three hours of deliberation, a nine-member jury on May 9, 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in the 1990s and for defaming her in his 2022 denial. The jury did not find that she proved “rape” under New York’s narrow legal definition, but found the lesser “sexual abuse”, awarding roughly $2 million for the battery and about $3 million for defamation, including $280,000 in punitive damages.
January 26, 2024
In the earlier-filed “Carroll I” case — tried second, and limited to damages for Trump’s 2019 statements made while he was president — a separate Manhattan federal jury on January 26, 2024 awarded Carroll $83.3 million: $18.3 million in compensatory damages and $65 million in punitive damages, after concluding Trump had acted maliciously and kept attacking her even during the trial.
December 14, 2024
On December 14, 2024, ABC News agreed to donate $15 million to Trump’s future presidential library and pay $1 million toward his legal fees to settle a defamation suit Trump filed after anchor George Stephanopoulos said on air that Trump had been “found liable for rape”. The two Carroll juries had found sexual abuse and defamation, not “rape” as narrowly defined; the network also posted a note of regret. The settlement was widely read as a major news organization backing down in the face of Trump’s litigation.
April 1, 2025
In spring 2025 the Trump-controlled DOJ intervened in the $83.3 million defamation appeal, seeking to substitute the United States as the defendant under the Westfall Act on the theory that Trump’s 2019 statements were made within the scope of his official duties as president. Because the federal government is immune from defamation suits, a successful substitution would force Carroll’s claim to be dismissed entirely — an unusual post-verdict maneuver using government lawyers to rescue the president from a personal judgment.
June 17, 2025
On June 17, 2025, a panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the Justice Department’s bid to substitute the government for Trump under the Westfall Act, ruling he could not offload the defamation judgment onto taxpayers. The court treated presidential immunity as a defense Trump had waived, leaving the personal judgment intact.
November 10, 2025
On November 10, 2025, Trump petitioned the Supreme Court to overturn the $5 million Carroll II verdict, arguing the trial was tainted by evidentiary rulings — chiefly the admission of the “Access Hollywood” tape and testimony from two other women who accused him of similar assaults. It was the first of what would become two separate attempts to get the nation’s highest court to erase the Carroll judgments.
April 29, 2026
On April 29, 2026, the 2nd Circuit denied Trump’s petition for the full court to rehear “en banc” his challenge to the $83.3 million defamation judgment, with the majority holding that presidential immunity is a waivable defense and that Trump had forfeited it. His lawyers signaled they would take the fight to the Supreme Court.
June 29, 2026
On June 29, 2026 — after the case had been relisted and rescheduled some 15 times — the Supreme Court declined without comment to take up Trump’s appeal of the $5 million verdict, leaving the jury’s sexual-abuse and defamation findings and the award permanently in place.
July 1, 2026
Days after the Supreme Court’s rejection, a July 1, 2026 court filing showed Trump seeking to further postpone paying the $5 million judgment, while Carroll’s lawyers urged the court to enforce the award now, arguing he had exhausted his appeals and should not be allowed to run out the clock.
July 7, 2026
Even after the Supreme Court refused to erase the $5 million verdict, Trump is dragging the far larger $83.3 million defamation judgment back to the same justices — a second bite at the high court that virtually no ordinary defendant ever gets. His argument is that because he smeared Carroll while he was president, presidential immunity and the Westfall Act should wipe the judgment out and stick taxpayers with the bill, and he has already gotten an appeals court to freeze the payment while he litigates. This is the Roy Cohn playbook in plain sight: never settle, never apologize, attack the accuser, and grind the case out for years until the other side gives up or dies. A man two juries found liable for sexually abusing a woman and then defaming her is using the powers of the federal government and a bottomless appeals budget to keep from paying her a single dollar — while anyone without his wealth and position would have been ruined, or jailed, long ago. This is not the vindication of some legal principle. It is the spectacle of a rich and powerful man buying himself out of accountability, still refusing to accept that a woman told the truth about him.