President Donald Trump filed a last-ditch plea with the U.S. Supreme Court as he tries to prevent the writer E. Jean Carroll from collecting $5 million awarded by a jury that found he had sexually abused and defamed her.

Trump on Monday asked the high court to take the unusual step of reconsidering its June 29 rejection of the president’s appeal. A decision by the high court to reopen the case could forestall Carroll’s receipt of money now being held in escrow to cover the jury award and interest.

The Supreme Court made no comment when it turned away Trump’s appeal, which focused on technical questions involving the federal rules of evidence for civil cases. Trump argued that jurors shouldn’t have been allowed to hear testimony about two prior alleged sexual assaults or listen to the Access Hollywood tape in which he boasted in vulgar terms that he could grab women by their genitalia without consent.

The verdict is one of two Carroll won against Trump, who has indicated he also will seek Supreme Court review of an $83.3 million award in a separate defamation suit. The Justice Department says it will join that effort, which is likely to raise distinct legal issues because that case centers on comments Trump made while he was president.

In the case that produced the $5 million verdict, Carroll testified that Trump pinned her against a wall and attacked her in a Bergdorf Goodman department store dressing room in 1996. Trump has continuously denied the allegations.

Carroll also accused Trump of defaming her when he posted on social media in 2022 that her allegations were a “complete con job,” a “Hoax” and a “Scam.” In that same post, Trump said that Carroll “is not my type!”

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the verdict, saying the testimony of the other alleged victims and the Access Hollywood recording helped establish a pattern of conduct by Trump.

Carroll, a former advice columnist for Elle magazine, went public with her allegations in 2019. She sued in 2022 under a New York law that temporarily lifted the statute of limitations on sexual assault claims.

Carroll’s lawyer has asked the district court to immediately release the funds, arguing that any request by Trump for the Supreme Court to recorder its decision is a delay tactic. Carroll says she is now owed almost $5.8 million with interest.

The judge is weighing that request and ordered Trump’s lawyer to respond by Tuesday.

The case is Trump v. Carroll, 25-573.

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(With assistance from Erik Larson.)

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