Supreme Court declines to hear Trump's latest effort to block E. Jean Carroll award

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Trump's bid to overturn a jury verdict awarding $5 million to writer E. Jean Carroll for alleged sexual abuse and defamation. 

It was the second time the high court passed on the request. The president had asked the court to reconsider its decision from June that rejected Trump's first appeal, and the court almost never grants such requests, NBC News reported. 

Trump has already paid the $5 million, with interest. A judge ruled in July that Carroll could be paid the award, along with interest. Trump had paid the money, but it was set aside in an escrow account during the appeals process pending a court order. After the Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal of the verdict the first time, Carroll's lawyers requested that the money be disbursed. 

Carroll, a longtime advice columnist, first publicly accused Trump in 2019 of sexually assaulting her in a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman in Manhattan during the mid-1990s. The allegation appeared in an excerpt from her memoir published by New York Magazine.

Trump denied the accusation, saying he had never assaulted Carroll and describing her claims as a “hoax” and politically motivated. Carroll subsequently filed two civil lawsuits.