By MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to throw out a jury’s finding in a civil lawsuit that he sexually abused writer E. Jean Carroll at a Manhattan department store in the mid-1990s and later defamed her.

Trump’s lawyers argued in a lengthy filing with the high court that allegations leading to the $5 million verdict were “propped up” by a “series of indefensible evidentiary rulings” that allowed Carroll’s lawyers to present “highly inflammatory propensity evidence” against him.

Carroll, a longtime advice columnist and former TV talk show host, testified at a 2023 trial that Trump turned a friendly encounter in spring 1996 into a violent attack in the dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, a luxury retailer across the street from Trump Tower.

The jury also found Trump liable for defaming Carroll when he made comments in October 2022 denying her allegation.

Trump’s lawyers, led by St. Louis, Missouri-based attorney Justin D. Smith, called Carroll’s claims a “politically motivated hoax.”

They accused the trial judge, Lewis A. Kaplan, of warping federal evidence rules to bolster Carroll’s “implausible, unsubstantiated assertions.” They said that by upholding the verdict, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was in conflict with other federal appeals courts on how such rules should be applied.

“President Trump has clearly and consistently denied that this supposed incident ever occurred,” Smith and his co-counsel wrote. “No physical or DNA evidence corroborates Carroll’s story. There were no eyewitnesses, no video evidence, and no police report or investigation.”

A message seeking comment was left with Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan.

In September, when Trump’s lawyers first indicated they would appeal to the Supreme Court, she said, “We do not believe that President Trump will be able to present any legal issues in the Carroll cases that merit review by the United States Supreme Court.”

A spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement the Supreme Court appeal was part of the president’s crusade against “Liberal Lawfare.”

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“The American People stand with President Trump as they demand an immediate end to all of the Witch Hunts, including the Democrat-funded travesty of the Carroll Hoaxes,” the statement said.

A three-judge appellate panel upheld the verdict in December 2024, rejecting Trump’s claims that trial Judge Kaplan’s decisions spoiled the trial, including by allowing two other Trump sexual abuse accusers to testify. The women said Trump committed similar acts against them in the 1970s and in 2005. Trump denied all three women’s allegations.

In June, 2nd Circuit judges denied Trump’s petition for the full appellate court to take up the case. That left Trump with two options: accept the result and allow Carroll to collect the judgment, which he’d previously paid into escrow, or fight on in Supreme Court, whose conservative majority — including three of his own appointees — could be more open to considering his challenge.

Trump skipped the 2023 trial but testified briefly at a follow-up defamation trial last year that ended with a jury ordering him to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million. The second trial resulted from comments then-President Trump made in 2019 after Carroll first made the accusations publicly in a memoir.

Judge Kaplan presided over both trials and instructed the second jury to accept the first jury’s finding that Trump had sexually abused Carroll. Judge Kaplan and Carroll’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, are not related.

In their Supreme Court filing, Trump’s lawyers said Kaplan compounded his “significant evidentiary errors” at first trial by “improperly preventing” Trump from contesting the first jury’s finding that he had sexually abused Carroll, leading to an “unjust judgment of $83.3 million.”

The 2nd Circuit upheld that verdict on Sept. 8, with a three-judge panel calling the jury’s damages awards “fair and reasonable.” Trump has since asked the full appellate court to hear arguments and reconsider the ruling.

Trump has had recent success fending off costly civil judgments. In August, a New York appeals court threw out Trump’s staggering penalty in a state civil fraud lawsuit.

The Associated Press does not identify people who say they have been sexually assaulted unless they come forward publicly, as Carroll has done.

“Thousands remain on the lien sale list, facing excessive fees and risk of foreclosure. Many are older adults or long-time residents, who missed notices or couldn’t navigate the system in time.”

Homes in The Bronx. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

This summer, for the first time since the COVID pandemic, New York City restarted its tax lien sale, in which the city sells the right to collect the unpaid property taxes and water bills of New Yorkers to private investors. 

Families can face foreclosure and displacement simply because they fell behind on bills, often by just a few thousand dollars. While the sale can be effective in collecting taxes placed on commercial properties and apartment complexes owned by larger landlords, the reality is that it unfairly targets thousands of New York’s small homeowners over comparatively small arrears for property taxes, sewer bills or emergency repairs. This year, nearly half of the properties on the lien sale list were one- to three-family homes.     

Take one Legal Services NYC client: a woman in her 90s who was blind and should have been exempt from the lien sale because of her age and disability. But the city’s rigid rules require homeowners to repeatedly recertify exemptions—even when nothing about their eligibility will ever change. When she visited a service center with her granddaughter, staff failed to renew her exemption and instead put her in an unaffordable payment plan. Her lien was sold to a debt buyer, and she was sued in foreclosure, and only after finding a Legal Services attorney was she able to undo the sale and stay in her home. Had she lost it, the cost to the city of her homelessness would have far exceeded the few thousand dollars still owed. 

Since its infamous introduction by then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani, the tax lien sale has disproportionately harmed low- and moderate-income homeowners, particularly in Black and Latino neighborhoods, and our elderly neighbors, accelerating displacement and housing insecurity in communities that have already borne the brunt of redlining, disinvestment and rising costs. Consequently, the sale deepens long-standing racial disparities, with data showing that Black homeowners are six times more likely to appear on the lien sale list than white homeowners.

This year, the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, working with City Hall, the City Council, agencies, and dozens of community organizations, mounted a major effort to limit the damage of the lien sale. When the City issued its 90-day notice list—a list that immediately puts vulnerable homeowners at risk for scams and fraud—The Center for NYC Neighborhoods launched an intensive outreach campaign. It sought to connect at-risk homeowners with housing counselors, free legal help through organizations like Legal Services NYC, and with city programs like Easy Exit, which can remove eligible properties from the sale list for a year. These groups worked around the clock to screen homeowners for exemptions and other relief.

Their efforts removed over 7,300 properties from the sale list, while the city and Council also expanded hardship programs, clarified eligibility rules, and broadened community outreach, ultimately allowing for real progress. But many homeowners still struggled to access exemptions as the city’s Department of Finance and Department of Environmental Protection were overwhelmed, delaying and even changing application processes midstream.

Thousands remain on the lien sale list, facing excessive fees and risk of foreclosure. Many are older adults or long-time residents, who missed notices or couldn’t navigate the system in time. Even those who were removed remain vulnerable because their debt information remains public, making them targets for scams and deed theft, especially in neighborhoods like Southeast Queens and Central Brooklyn that are targets for predatory actors. The costs of the lien sale far outweigh the benefits.

The tireless work of housing counselors and legal aid groups has saved thousands, but without policy reform, it’s only a temporary Band-Aid. We should not have to race against the clock each year to prevent harm. City programs should not put our vulnerable neighbors at risk.

Programs like income-based repayment plans, the Property Tax and Interest Deferral (PTAID) program, and permanent exemptions for seniors and people with disabilities must be expanded, better funded, and extended to water debts. And class 1 and 2 properties—one- to three-family homes and owner-occupied condominiums—must be removed from the tax lien sale entirely.

The tax lien sale is neither sustainable nor just, and New Yorkers deserve a system that helps them stay in their homes, not one that pushes them toward foreclosure and displacement. 

Rachel Geballe is the deputy director of Legal Services NYC.

The post Opinion: New York City’s Tax Lien Sale is Harmful to Vulnerable Homeowners appeared first on City Limits.

City Limits rounds up the latest housing and land use-related events, public hearings and affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

A rally in June in support of several “social housing” bills in the City Council. One of those bills, which would establish a city land bank, is on the agenda at a Council hearing Thursday. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

Welcome to City Limits’ NYC Housing Calendar, a weekly feature where we round up the latest housing and land use-related events and hearings, as well as upcoming affordable housing lotteries that are ending soon.

Know of an event we should include in next week’s calendar? Email us.

Upcoming Housing and Land Use-Related Events:

Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 10:30 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Committee on Consumer and Worker Protection will meet regarding a bill that would require home improvement contractors to provide building owners with information on needed permits, and requiring public outreach and education on the watch list of contractors performing work without a permit. More here.

Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 11 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises will meet regarding the land use applications for: 58 Nixon Court Rezoning II, 464 Ovington Avenue Rezoning, 5502 Flatlands Avenue Rezoning, 699-703 Lexington Avenue, and Special Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan Follow-Up Action. More here.

Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 11:15 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Committee on Land Use will meet regarding the land use applications for: 58 Nixon Court Rezoning II, 464 Ovington Avenue Rezoning, 5502 Flatlands Avenue Rezoning, 699-703 Lexington Avenue, and Special Atlantic Avenue Mixed Use Plan Follow-Up Action. More here.

Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 6 p.m.: The 5th Avenue Committee will hold an informational workshop on how to apply for units One Sunset Apartments, an affordable housing development in Sunset Park. More here.

Wednesday, Nov. 12 at 6:30 p.m.: The NYC Public Housing Preservation Trust will hold an in-person meeting for residents at NYCHA’s Nostrand Houses in Brooklyn to provide updates on repair and construction plans. More here.

Thursday, Nov. 13 at 11 a.m.: The NYC Council’s Committee on Finance will meet regarding bills to establish a land bank for New York City and reform the city’s tax liens system. More here.

Thursday, Nov. 13 at 1 p.m.: The NYC Council’s Subcommittee on Landmarks, Public Sitings and Dispositions will meet regarding the following properties: Barbey Building, 29th Street Towers, Fashion Tower, Furcraft Building, Leftcourt Clothing Center, Brooklyn CD 5 Walk to Park Site Selection/Acquisition, and Praise Tabernacle. More here.

Monday, Nov. 17 at 1 p.m.: The City Planning Commission will hold a public review session. More here.

NYC Affordable Housing Lotteries Ending Soon: The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) are closing lotteries on the following subsidized buildings over the next week.

 890 Erskine Street, Brooklyn, for households earning up to $72,900 (last day to apply is 11/12)

Marcus Garvey Building G, Brooklyn, for households earning between $70,903 – $140,630 (last day to apply is 11/12)

The post NYC Housing Calendar, Nov. 10-17 appeared first on City Limits.

Surfer-turned-songwriter Jack Johnson and soft rockers Train are the latest two acts added to the summer 2026 lineup at the new Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee.

Tickets for Johnson’s July 12 concert and Train’s Aug. 9 stop both go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday through Ticketmaster. Citi cardholders have a presale for Johnson through the end of the day Tuesday and for Train from 10 a.m. Tuesday through 10 p.m. Thursday.

The son of surfer Jeff Johnson, Jack Johnson picked up the sport at the age of five. By 17, he was competing professionally, but a surfing accident led to more than 100 stitches in his forehead and the end of his brief pro career. He went on to study film at the University of California, Santa Barbara, but ended up pursuing a career in music.

After spending the mid-’90s playing the college circuit with his band Soil, Johnson’s break came when he wrote and contributed vocals to G. Love’s 1999 song “Rodeo Clowns.” It earned enough attention for Johnson to record his solo debut album, 2001’s “Brushfire Fairytales.” He widened his audience that year as the opening act for Ben Harper.

Johnson’s laid-back indie folk style and constant touring earned him a faithful following and also helped pave the way for the likes of Ed Sheeran and Mumford and Sons. His first four albums each went platinum and he’s landed in the Top 10 nearly 20 times on the Billboard adult alternative singles chart.

While he played the late Rivers Edge Amphitheatre in Somerset numerous times in the ’00s, Johnson hasn’t performed in the metro since 2013, largely because he prefers to play outdoor venues.

Train, meanwhile, is a frequent visitor to the region, with last summer’s spot at the Minnesota Yacht Club Festival following shows at Somerset Amphitheater, Surly Brewing Festival Field, Treasure Island Casino, the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand, Basilica Block Party and the former Xcel Energy Center.

Vocalist Pat Monahan formed Train in 1994. After failing to land a record deal, the band self-financed their debut album in 1998 and managed to score a hit with “Meet Virginia.” That single, and national tours opening for Barenaked Ladies, Hootie and the Blowfish and Counting Crows helped convince Columbia to sign the band. (Barenaked Ladies are opening for Train’s 2026 tour alongside Matt Nathanson.)

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“Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me),” the first single from Train’s sophomore album of the same name, was a massive success here and abroad and continues to be played on local radio stations and in grocery stores to this day. It also paved the way for future hits “Hey, Soul Sister,” “Marry Me,” “Drive By” and “Play That Song.”

Monahan remains the sole original member of the band, which recently added Butch Walker to the lineup on lead guitar and backing vocals. Known for his time in Marvelous 3 and his solo work, Walker is also a prolific producer who has worked with a long line of acts including Train, Taylor Swift, Pink, Fall Out Boy, Katy Perry, Green Day and Weezer.

Not to be confused with Mystic Lake Casino’s own amphitheater, Mystic Lake Amphitheater is a new outdoor amphitheater with a capacity of 19,000 that’s set to open in the spring. Last month, grown-up boy band 5 Seconds of Summer and metal legends Iron Maiden were the first two shows announced for the venue.