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What are the key dates in E. Jean Carroll’s first accusation against Donald Trump and subsequent legal actions?
Executive summary
E. Jean Carroll first publicly accused Donald Trump in June 2019 and sued him for defamation in November 2019; a federal jury found Trump liable for sexually abusing and defaming her in May 2023 and awarded $5 million (plus later larger defamation awards addressed in subsequent trials and appeals) [1] [2] [3]. Trump’s appeals were largely unsuccessful at the Second Circuit (affirmed December 2024 and June 2025), he sought further review including an en banc rehearing denial in June 2025, and on November 10, 2025 he petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the $5 million verdict [3] [4] [5] [6].
1. The original accusation and early public timeline
Carroll went public with the allegation in mid‑2019 — she wrote in New York magazine that Trump raped her in 1995 or 1996 — and following his public denials she filed a defamation lawsuit in New York state court in November 2019 [1] [3]. Reporting and legal summaries consistently date her public allegation to June 2019 and the civil filing to November 2019 [1] [3].
2. Federal trial that produced the May 2023 verdict
A federal jury in Manhattan in May 2023 found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll in a Bergdorf Goodman dressing room in the mid‑1990s and also for defamation, awarding $5 million in damages tied to that finding [2] [3]. News outlets emphasize the May 2023 judgment as the core event that later prompted appellate review and additional litigation over later comments [2] [3].
3. Subsequent defamation litigation and additional awards
Carroll amended or brought related claims tied to comments Trump made later (including in 2019 and in 2022), which led to additional defamation trials and larger awards; reporting cites a second, much larger judgment (approximately $83.3 million) tied to post‑verdict and later statements upheld on appeal in 2025 [7] [8]. The two suits together produced the higher cumulative damage totals cited in reporting [3] [8].
4. Appeals at the Second Circuit: December 2024 and mid‑2025 rulings
An appellate panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s judgments in December 2024; subsequent orders and an opinion or related filing were entered in mid‑June 2025 as the litigation continued on procedural grounds [3] [4]. Multiple outlets report the Second Circuit rejected Trump’s challenges to evidentiary rulings and the use of testimony from other accusers and related propensity evidence [6] [4].
5. En banc rehearing request and denial, and the path to the Supreme Court
Trump sought en banc review after the Second Circuit panel decisions; reporting notes an en banc rehearing request was rejected in June 2025, and that the Trump team then petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court — with a publicly reported petition filed or made known on November 10, 2025 seeking to overturn the $5 million verdict [3] [5] [6]. Coverage of the Supreme Court petition quotes the petition’s framing that Carroll “waited more than 20 years” and challenges evidentiary rulings at trial [9] [5].
6. Competing narratives and evidentiary flashpoints
Court filings and news stories frame the dispute differently: Trump’s lawyers characterize Carroll’s claims as politically motivated and argue the trial judge improperly allowed “highly inflammatory propensity evidence” including testimony from other accusers and the Access Hollywood tape; appellate courts—at least in the Second Circuit—found those rulings were within permissible discretion or harmless error [6] [10] [4]. Carroll’s team and the juries emphasized contemporaneous corroboration presented at trial (friends’ testimony, photographs, other evidence cited in summaries) and the jury verdicts sustained on appeal [3] [4].
7. What the current sources do and do not say
Available sources document the accusation (mid‑1990s), the public allegation in June 2019, the November 2019 defamation filing, the May 2023 federal jury verdict ($5 million), the December 2024 and June 2025 appellate outcomes, the en banc denial in June 2025, and a November 10, 2025 Supreme Court petition by Trump’s team [1] [3] [2] [4] [6] [5]. Available sources do not mention a final Supreme Court disposition or a later federal docket entry beyond the November 10, 2025 petition [5] [3].
Limitations and context: reporting varies in emphasis and numbers (news outlets cite the $5 million civil award tied to the May 2023 verdict and larger subsequent defamation awards); appellate opinions and news summaries are the primary public records cited here and interpret evidentiary disputes differently depending on which party’s filings or quotes they highlight [4] [6].