A federal appeals court rejected President Trump’s request to rehear his appeal of the verdict in a defamation case with writer E. Jean Carroll. Trump was ordered to pay Carroll $83 million in damages in 2024 after she argued that he defamed her.
“Following disposition of this appeal on September 8, 2025, an active judge of the Court requested a poll on whether to rehear the case en banc. A poll having been conducted and there being no majority favoring en banc review, the petitions for rehearing en banc are hereby DENIED,” the order says.
“The fact of the matter is that no other defendant would be permitted to move to substitute the United States in his place, fifteen months after trial and the entry of judgment against him,” Judge Denny Chin wrote in an opinion supporting the decision, as reported by NBC News. “The Court appropriately declined to convene en banc to revisit this issue.”
President Trump’s legal team said in a statement that it will appeal the decision. “The American People stand with President Trump in demanding an immediate end to the unlawful, radical weaponization of our justice system, and a swift dismissal of all of the Witch Hunts, including the illegal, Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes—the defense of which the Attorney General has determined is legally required to be taken over by the Department of Justice because Carroll based her false claims on the President’s official acts,” a spokesman said.
Should Trump appeal the $83 million case to the Supreme Court, it will be his second case involving Carroll to appear before the justices. In November, President Trump’s legal team urged the Supreme Court to overturn a civil lawsuit verdict finding he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll.
The filing asserted that Carroll’s claims are a “politically motivated hoax,” and added that she “waited more than 20 years to falsely accuse Donald Trump, who she politically opposes, until after he became the 45th president, when she could maximize political injury to him and profit for herself. Notably, Carroll’s allegations are a story that precisely matches the plotline from an episode of one of admittedly her favorite TV shows, ‘Law & Order.’”
